It was a race of two very different stories in Belgium on Sunday, after an 80-minute delay to the start of the Grand Prix due to heavy rain.
Alex Albon absorbed intense pressure throughout the race and was rewarded with a hard-earned P6 finish – adding eight points to the three Carlos Sainz had earned in the Sprint a day prior.
Carlos had opted for a pit lane start, switching to set-up more tailored towards wet conditions. But with the race mostly run in the dry after the delay, it was a strategy that didn’t pay off. He came home in P18 despite a committed drive.
Read on to learn how it all sounded when the chequered flag finally dropped at Spa.
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James Urwin (JU), Alex’s Race Engineer, was the first on the radio after another composed and clinical drive, with Team Principal James Vowles (JV) also quick to commend the effort.
JU: Lovely stuff, well done mate! You had to absorb a lot of pressure there, well done.
JV: Well done, Alex. Really strong drive from you today. Well earned for that P6, defending every lap. Brilliant, brilliant job.
AA: Yeah, thank you, thanks James. Package was working well, so thank you everyone. Thank you factory for getting that early and just rewards. Thanks for the hard work.
Carlos and Gaetan chatting ahead of Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix
On the other side of the garage, Gaetan Jego (GJ) and James Vowles were full of support for Carlos, who rolled the dice with the setup – but ultimately didn’t get the conditions he needed.
GJ: That’s P18. We tried, we tried to play our chance, but the conditions didn’t really pan out and work our way.
JV: Tough day, Carlos. We set the car up for wet, but at the end you only had ten laps. Just well driven today. Apologies for the pitstop. We need to tighten these things up, but well done this weekend. The package is working and it’ll give us a good future.
CS: Yeah, my bad for that rear wing choice.
JV: It’s one team, Carlos, we did that all together.
CS: Sorry for that, I don’t know if we would have recovered to the points though.
GJ: I agree with James. I backed you up. I was happy with the call. We made it consciously as a team, mate. We win and lose together.
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