Albon ‘very happy’ to return to points at Silverstone as Sainz rues ‘really frustrating’ run of bad luck

There were mixed emotions across the Williams garage after the British Grand Prix, with Alex Albon thrilled to return to the points in P8 following a string of retirements while Carlos Sainz was left “frustrated” by his continued run of “bad luck”.

After lining up in P13 amid mixed conditions, Albon found himself running in third place at one stage of the race due to being one of the last to switch to fresh intermediate tyres when the rain became heavier.

While he then dropped down the order following his stop, the Thai driver displayed good pace on the slick tyres later on and ultimately crossed the line in eighth place, bringing an end to his three-race run of DNFs.

“[It was] a lot of fun, actually,” Albon said of his afternoon at Silverstone. “I think it was looking a little bit doom and gloom at some points of the race – we had some moments where we were looking out of the points.

“And then in a weird way Carlos and I were together on track, which was making it worse because the stop laps were always on one lap and we were always – as Carlos was in front of me for most of the race – we ended up being out of sync and pitting a lap later every time and losing some track position.

“But on that last set on the slick tyres the car came alive and it really got quick. We got Fernando [Alonso] on the last lap which was fun, had a good battle with him and, P8, I think after a few DNFs is… [I’m] very happy.”

Asked if the result had acted as a good boost for the team on home soil prior to the next round on the calendar in Belgium, Albon responded: “Yeah, I think so. I think we needed that, the momentum and the general direction of flow was not with us. It was nice to get a race back on the board and get the motivation back and get the vibes up for the next race.”

It proved to be a tougher day for Albon's Williams team mate Sainz. The Spaniard had started from P9 on the grid and looked to be having a decent race, but contact with the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc saw him slip backwards, meaning that he eventually ended the event in P12.

Sainz explained later on: “I had a good race, I was having a very solid race, staying out of trouble, survival mode, and then when we went onto the slicks I was P8, fighting for P7 I think.

“Charles was the car in Turn 15, and when he lost it he crashed into me and went backwards from there with damage.

“Story of my season, every time we’re on to score good points and having a solid weekend, something out of our control happens and [I’m] getting a bit frustrated, tired with this season because every time there’s something different when we’re about to get good points.”

With a short break until F1 heads to Spa-Francorchamps on the weekend of July 25-27, Sainz is glad to have the chance to pause before hoping for better luck in the second half of the campaign.

“I’m driving well, doing everything I can,” the four-time race winner said. “But when there’s so many things happening out of your control, it makes you want to have a bit of a break to see if this run of bad luck and things that keep happening to us stop somehow and we start having a cleaner second half of the season.

“I’ve never had such a run of so many bad things happening to you consecutively in a run of five, six, seven, eight races like we’ve been [experiencing]. It starts to be really frustrating.”