James Williams chief Vowles 'BITTER' over major Singapore incidents

James Vowles, Williams, Bahrain, 2023 — Photo: © LAT Images

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Williams chief Vowles 'BITTER' over major Singapore incidents

The Williams team principal was left feeling deflated after a disappointing race for the team

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Tuesday 19 September 2023 15:57

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Williams team principal James Vowles says he has been left with 'a bitter taste in my mouth' after a disappointing Singapore Grand Prix for the team.

Logan Sargeant crashed into the barriers on lap 20, ruining his race completely and eventually limping over the line in 14th position, whilst Alex Albon's was ruined by a collision with Sergio Perez in the Red Bull.

The Thai driver was running in ninth position, and chasing down AlphaTauri's Liam Lawson in eighth when Perez lunged up the inside of him going into turn 13 and Albon ended up going straight on into the wall.

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Perez was handed a five second penalty after the race for causing a collision, but it was no consolation for Albon, who ended up finishing outside of the points in 11th.

"On the race itself, I still have a bitter taste in my mouth from what happened across the race," Vowles told Williams' official website.

"There were obviously moments where we were fighting for real strong points as a result of some very good decision making.

"In terms of Logan, he's deeply frustrated with himself, he was pushing the absolute boundaries and limits of it, and he hadn't put a foot wrong all weekend but on this particular occasion it was fine margins he just slightly modified his lift and coast, made a mistake, locked up and took the front wing out.

"Alex was flying, he really was absolutely on fire overtaking car after car, fighting through Haas, fighting through Alfa Romeo, fighting up to the back of the AlphaTauri.

"I'm confident we would have got through eventually, but there was an incident involving Perez and Alex," he continued.

"Alex was really backed up into a corner by Lawson to a certain extent, Perez lunged into and has received as a result of that a five second penalty, but that doesn't really bring into effect what happened as a result of that we now fell out of the points which is deeply disappointing for the team."

Williams' point-scoring form comes to an end

Alex Albon's performances in the Williams this season have been mightily impressive

Williams had been able to score points in three of the last five races up until Singapore, a run that has seen them climb into a comfortable seventh position in the constructors' standings.

Albon's form in particular has been outstanding, in both qualifying and races.

In Zandvoort, he was able to put his car on the second row of the grid in qualifying before converting it into an eighth-place finish, whilst in Monza he qualified sixth and finished seventh.

The team were expecting both Singapore and Japan next weekend to be difficult for them, but to be so close to points again around the Marina Bay circuit and have it snatched away will be a bitter blow.