The Thai-Brit kicked off the occasion by operating second quickest in first observe, lapping solely 0.095 seconds shy of pacesetter and eventual race winner Max Verstappen. He then categorized solely 14th in FP2.
In last observe on Saturday morning, Albon once more troubled the lead Purple Bull. He was 0.07s adrift of Verstappen to complete second, however once more fell again to 14th in qualifying earlier than racing to 2 factors in ninth place.
Albon reckoned monitor temperature was the primary issue behind these peaks and troughs all weekend.
He defined: “I used to be shocked, the tempo [in the race] was not that robust. It was OK.
“I believe numerous that simply comes all the way down to the temperature of the day, the monitor was scorching identical to qualifying. We struggled when the monitor will get scorching.
“So, there was numerous administration and within the race, I used to be having to handle an excessive amount of to make the tyres final and that was affecting the lap time.”
Picture by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Alex Albon, Williams FW45, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60, Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo C43
The asphalt was recorded at 52 levels Celsius at the beginning of the race earlier than falling to 45 levels. That in comparison with 44 levels in FP3, which climbed to 47 levels for the beginning of qualifying.
Increasing on his struggles, Albon continued: “Purely the tyres and the temperature. We all know we now have fairly a delicate automotive.
“We all know we slide round slightly bit greater than different vehicles, which implies when it will get scorching, it creates a bit extra temperature.
“The race is a bit simpler as a result of everyone seems to be managing. Clearly in a brief run, for those who’re managing, you are simply going to be sluggish. So, we had the identical drawback as qualifying, however we made it work.”
Williams head of car efficiency Dave Robson additionally partially blamed temperature rises for Albon lacking a Q3 shot on Saturday, including that site visitors administration had additional damage in a marginal session.
Robson stated that he was “fairly shocked” by the dimensions of the deficit created by the warmth.
He continued: “It has been an fascinating and topsy-turvy weekend. We didn’t count on to be robust right here and at instances we shocked ourselves. After a troublesome qualifying session, we raced extraordinarily nicely.
“We positively hit the bottom operating when it comes to the set-up, the tyres have been in a very good window on Friday and once more in FP3. We don’t measure something massively completely different however very small modifications appears to make the distinction.”