F1 | Williams, Albon seventh, but what a struggle with race pace!

There are many questions at home Williams after the first day of free practice at Suzuka. The team of Whole grained seems to have found a better configuration for qualifying; the times prove it Alex Albon: the Thai is eighth in FP1, seventh in the second session, eight tenths behind Verstappen. The situation is reversed, however, on race pace: degradation is high and the car is unable to maintain performance with a full load of fuel. Albon is already resigned: he will have to compromise his qualifying set-up if he wants to have any chance of scoring points in Suzuka.

"It went well. As we expected, the flying lap times are good, but we are struggling with race pace: we need to understand why we have so much degradation. We will have to start everything again and perhaps sacrifice our qualifying set-up to try to be faster on Sunday. We'll see how it goes."

Fifty-two laps completed for Logan Sergeant, making its debut on the Japanese circuit. The rookie still remained confined to the bottom of the standings, but on this day Logan focused on the track, especially on how to improve the first sector.

“It was really nice to drive at Suzuka for the first time, but this track is not easy at all, especially in the first sector. We are working hard to set up the car: it seems not as easy as the other tracks, so we are going gradually, but I can already see some improvements between FP1 and FP2. From the rider's point of view, I have to concentrate on the first sector, it's the one where I waste the most time. Regarding the car, there are some improvements to be made on cornering balance. Furthermore, there was a lot of degradation today and we weren't able to be consistent during the race simulation. However, things improve on the flying lap."