Alex Albon will commence this afternoon’s Austrian Grand Prix Sprint race from the pit lane as the Williams team has elected to make alterations to his Formula 1 car.
The Anglo-Thai driver was optimistic the Red Bull Ring would prove to be more favourable to Williams amid a drastic slump in competitiveness in Spain last weekend.
But while a Williams managed to progress to SQ2, Albon was eliminated as it was Logan Sargeant who out-qualified his team-mate for the first time on genuine pace.
Albon lamented not being more aggressive with his set-up changes past the single practice hour and has given up his 19th-place starting berth to make those tweaks.
This will mean that Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu will be promoted one position on the grid, as Albon begins a race not on the starting grid for the second consecutive event.
The Grove-based squad’s faint hopes at landing a points finish in the truncated affair will fall on Sargeant’s shoulders, with the American due to start from 15th place.
