Hungarian GP: Tight qualifying for Williams Racing
By Williams Racing
July 23 2023
Qualifying for the 2023 Hungarian GP would see the Williams Racing Team drivers Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant finish in 16th and 20th. Overall despite been down the order it could only be described a very tight qualifying, run under the ATA format, with the smallest of margins separating Alex from making it into Q2. For Logan his session was on of frustrations as he felt that he did not achieve his best having completed what he described as a messy lap. As for Sunday's race the ATA will see a mix of tyres been available across the field which could offer opportunities to the Williams drivers. The Hungaroring is well know for it being a very difficult place to pass so race strategy is going to be even more vital.
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Williams Racing
Hungarian GP Qualifying Review |
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Logan Sargeant:
"I think if everything had gone perfect, we had a chance to go to
Q2 today, but it was a messy lap. It was difficult going straight to
Qualifying on the hard tyre as neither of us had driven it yet this
weekend [due to the Alternative Tyre Allocation format of the race] and
it wasn’t easy to put a lap together. Although I’m sure everyone
struggled and had time to find today, I’m mainly frustrated with myself;
I’ve been driving well all weekend, I feel like we had the pace to do
something good and then I could pick out at least half a second on that
lap that was left out there. With the tyre format this weekend, we’ve
been so limited on laps. Strategy-wise tomorrow, we’ll be fine as we
saved a set of hard tyres. A few people have used all their sets, which
I don’t think will feel good for them tomorrow, but from our side we
have the tyres we need for the race so hopefully that will play into our
hands." |
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Alex Albon:
"If you look at Qualifying, it wasn’t a bad session as we were
right in the mix - one tenth would have moved us up a few places. It’s
frustrating to be so close to Q2 but it’s a bit more representative of
our overall pace. It shows we’re making progress but it’s also good to
come to tracks like this as it helps us to understand our car and
highlight the issues. Even the tyre compounds went against us I believe
as the harder tyres have less grip, so soft tyres tend to hide our
problems, whilst hard tyres expose us more. It was always going to be
tricky but, ultimately, I believe the Alternative Tyre Allocation
penalises us more than the top teams who can save on tyres and be better
prepared for Sunday." |
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Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance:
"It was incredibly tight today and we missed a place in Q2 by the
smallest of margins. The Alternative Tyre Allocation worked fine today;
there was a lot of on-track action in Q1, which made finding a gap in
the traffic more difficult than usual. Alex and Logan were mostly in
good positions although Alex had to complete the final couple of corners
in the wake of the McLaren.
Considering that we expected to struggle here more than at recent
tracks, today wasn’t too bad and with a very modest improvement in lap
time we could’ve been considerably further up the grid.
Every driver has a number of race tyres for tomorrow, but with differing
quantities of new and used tyres available, it could make for an
interesting strategic battle. Although overtaking is traditionally
difficult here, there will still be opportunities to make progress and
we have a race car that can do just that." |
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Track: Hungaroring, Hungary
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Lap Length: 4.381 km |
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Pos |
Driver |
Team |
Q1 |
Q2 |
Q3 |
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16 |
A Albon |
Williams Racing |
1:18.917 |
- |
- |
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20 |
L Sargeant |
Williams Racing |
1:19.248 |
- |
- |
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