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He may not have scored points, but Alex Albon, who sprinted around the track in his Williams in the opening laps of the race, is proud of his season in Abu Dhabi. Shocked by the premature speed in the finale.
Albon started strong from 19th and moved up three places by the end of lap 2, opting to start on the medium tyres. Although he had to pit earlier than some of his rivals to change to hard compound, he was still able to extract enough speed to make his two-stop strategy work, at least until the final stretch.
Read more: 6 winners and 5 losers from Abu Dhabi – who ended their season in style?
“We passed maybe four or five cars the first couple of laps and I thought ‘wait a minute, that’s not normal!'” he laughed after the race.
“It was fantastic, we were fine. There are always moments in the race where we keep hitting the point of degradation, so it’s almost like we go 15 laps and then the performance drops, so we’re forced to pit very early.
“We did fall short when we finished with tire wear at the end, but I thought it was a good job to start 19th and finish 13th, so I’m really happy.”
While Albon at least saw the checkered flag, his teammate did not – with Nicolas Latifi retiring with electrical problems towards the end of the race. It sums up the team’s performance this season in many ways – fast in parts but also difficult at times, with a P10 finish in the championship one place below last year’s.
“This year has been a huge effort by the team and we have done our best to maximize the performance of the car,” Albon said looking back on the season. “It’s no secret that we don’t have the easiest car to drive yet, but I’m really proud of everyone.
“We know our weaknesses and when we’ve struggled we’ve maximized our chances and when the car is in a good window that’s when we’ve scored.
“That puts us in a good position to have a better car next year.”
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