Azerbaijan GP: Challenging Sprint for Williams Racing
By Williams Racing
April 30 2023
Saturday's Sprint Shootout and Sprint for the 2023 Azerbaijan GP would turn out to be a challenging time for the Williams Racing Team. Even before the Sprint the team would see one of their cars, that of Logan Sargeant, badly damaged in a crash such that the car would be withdrawn for the Sprint. This would leave Alex Albon alone to run and despite starting inside the top ten it would be a difficult race in terms of keeping other cars behind him. He would eventually drop down the order to finish ninth just outside the points.
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Williams Racing
Azerbaijan GP Sprint Review |
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Logan Sargeant:
"That is our first sprint day of the season done. Clearly it didn’t go
the way we wanted it to go, but I think there were some good positives
to the Sprint Shootout considering the speed that we had as a team and I
feel like we were able to find a better window for me and the car at the
start of the session. Obviously, I’m sad to have ended it the way we
did, but I’m looking forward to using some of that pace tomorrow and
having a good race." |
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Alex Albon:
"I’m on the fence with the sprint race if I’m honest; it’s
rewarding the top four teams and they’re already a step ahead of
everyone else. It was a great race for us, but we just don’t have the
pace compared to them, so unfortunately no reward for today and we’ll
shift our focus to tomorrow. It’s frustrating to be sitting out of the
points in the sprint when P9 in a normal race would mean points and be
an excellent result for us. We were the best of the rest today, so we
can take some happiness from that, and know it’s now our job to get
closer to the top four." |
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Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:
"Today
was the first running of the new sprint event format, which replaced the
old free practice session with a qualifying shootout. Going straight
into qualifying on a dusty track wasn’t easy but both drivers adapted
well and were set to qualify for the 2nd section of the shootout.
Unfortunately, Logan hit the wall on his final flying lap; despite a big
effort from the team, we were unable to rebuild the car in time for the
sprint race. We will complete the rebuild overnight and he will take his
place in the Grand Prix tomorrow.
Alex enjoyed a smoother shootout session and continued where he left off
yesterday evening. He found good pace in the car, made no mistakes and
was able to qualify a very impressive 7th place, helped by the fact that
Norris was unable to take part.
Challenging Sprint With
points in the sprint race only awarded to the top 8 finishers, it was
always going to be difficult to challenge the four fastest teams. Alex
competed hard, pushed the car hard but was unable to stay ahead of the
Aston Martins.
Scoring no points on a day where we were constantly competing near the
front is very frustrating, but we are pleased with the pace of FW45,
especially as we brought only minor updates this weekend. We are now
looking forward to the Grand Prix and another chance to score some
points." |
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Track: Baku City Circuit,
Azerbaijan Lap |
Length: 6.003 km |
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9 |
A ALBON |
Williams Racing |
+21.757 (1:44.915) |
7 |
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DNS |
L SARGEANT |
Williams Racing |
- |
DNS |
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