Williams’ Dave Robson: Albon “played his hand without fault” after claiming points finish

Williams Racing increased their total in the Constructors’ Championship to four points, after Alex Albon put on a majestic defensive display to finish in tenth-place at the Belgian Grand Prix.

After starting an incredible sixth, the Thai driver lost some places early on; however, he quickly made his way back into a comfortable position thanks to his rocket ship of a FW44. Williams were ridiculously fast down the straights, which massively benefitted Albon late on, after leading a five car DRS train for the final points place. No one could find a way past the Thai driver, who claimed a deserved points finish at Spa-Francorchamps.

On the other side of the garage, it was disappointment once again for Nicholas Latifi. The Canadian driver finished last of the running drivers after spinning on the second lap. Latifi dropped a wheel into the gravel on the exit of Les Combes whilst continuing to accelerate, causing him to spin across the circuit. Whist spinning he clipped Valtteri Bottas, who span into the gravel himself and was forced to retire from the race on his birthday, after becoming beached.

This ruined Latifi’s race, which left him in Albon’s shadow once again.

Williams’ Head of Vehicle Performance, Dave Robson, discussed both of the drivers races, where he praised Albon for “delivering another hard-earned point”.

“Tyre degradation today was higher than we had anticipated, which meant at least two stops were required. Nicholas’s race was largely determined by the collision with Valtteri [Bottas] early in the race, which required him to pit for a new front wing. His start set of tyres were also damaged and so we chose to complete two further stops using a Soft tyre for the final stint.

“Alex had a difficult start and lost places initially before recovering on the opening lap. We chose to pit him relatively early at each stop to give him the best chance of holding track position and using his straight-line speed advantage to defend. We asked a lot of him in the final stint and he was under a lot of pressure from the cars behind for whole of that stint. He drove very well and played his hand without fault to deliver another hard-earned point.”