Alex Albon: We knew it was going to be difficult

Williams drivers failed to qualify for the second qualifying session, although Alex Albon came close. But he believes the new approach to tire use, tested for the first time this weekend, has impacted Williams more than the top teams.

Alex Albon (16th): “If you remember qualifying you can’t say it was a bad session because we were in the middle of the battle and if we added at least a tenth we would have moved up several positions.

It’s a shame because we were so close to qualifying for the second part of qualifying, although today’s result was a reflection of our true pace. But he says we are making progress, while it is good that we are now performing on a circuit like Hungary, which helps us understand the shortcomings of our car better.

Even the tire situation in qualifying was against us, as the hard tires don’t provide such effective grip, because the soft tires kind of mask our problems, and in the case of Hard they just seem stronger.

We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but in the end I think the new qualifying format has touched us more than the top teams, who can save tires and prepare better than us for Sunday.”

Logan Sargent (20th): “I think if everything went perfectly we would have a chance to get into the second part of qualifying, but the circle turned out to be very unlucky.

It was difficult to start qualifying on hard tyres, as neither me nor my partner had ridden them this weekend, and it was not easy to set a normal circle. While I’m sure everyone had similar issues and everyone had to make an effort to get better, I’m still very unhappy with myself.

I did a good job from the very beginning of the weekend and it seemed to me that our pace would allow us to show a good result, but in the decisive attempt it was possible to do a lap at least half a second faster.

But with this format of qualifying we could only do a limited number of laps. Talking about pre-race tactics, we should be fine with it because we managed to save a set of hard rubber.

Some riders have already used all their kits and I think they will be at a disadvantage tomorrow, but we have all the tires we need for the race. Let’s hope it works out for us.”