We didnt stand a chance Albon reveals cause of poor pace in Barcelona, as Latifi celebrates small victory

Alex Albon says he could have made “six or seven” pit stops at the Spanish Grand Prix without the Williams suburbanite came home in a lowly 18th – the last of the classified runners – while team mate Nicholas Latifi was happy with what he tabbed a “small little victory” at the end of the race as he finished in P16.

Albon came to Barcelona without making a fine start to the season, with two points finishes to stage – a P10 finish in Australia and a P9 the last time out in Miami. But without starting the Grand Prix P18 in Spain, the Thai suburbanite would finish in the same position come the chequered flag – Albon explaining the mitigating circumstances without the race.

“It was a tough day out there,” admitted Albon. “I picked up forfeiture to the floor without my first stop which heavily impacted the car’s performance. There was a lot of tyre ousting and I really struggled with speed, expressly into a couple of the corners. It’s unfortunate, as it meant we didn’t really stand a endangerment today, but that’s racing sometimes, and we’ll go then next week in Monaco.

“If I could, I would’ve washed-up six or seven [pit stops]!” he added. “We need to have a squint considering I don’t think everything was quite right. My tyres were gone without one lap. I mean, literally without one lap there was no increasingly grip out there, so we need to see what happened.”

Albon’s team mate Latifi was in a much increasingly upbeat mood without finishing in P16, having overtaken the Haas of Kevin Magnussen near the end of the race, in what he tabbed “a small victory.”

“I think as predicted without qualifying, we knew it was going to be a very long afternoon, very tough for the tyres, very tough for the drivers,” admitted the Canadian. “I think honestly on my side, I’m fairly happy with the race and the way we managed the tyres. It was nice to get the three stops in, so using the four sets of tyres and at least normally here when you do the two stops, from halfway through the stint you’re just driving with no grip, and it just becomes such a wearisome race.

“So, it was nice to have a bit increasingly of an attacking tideway just considering the tyre deg was so high, and I think it was nice at the end to ventilator lanugo Kevin and have a little small victory; obviously, a car that on paper was much quicker than us. I think we executed well from that side and although it wasn’t really for a position that meant anything, I think it was a small little victory, a small little positive for us and for me personally.”