Williams Martini Racing driver Sergey Sirotkin said the team could “take a lot of positives” from their performance in the Belgian Grand Prix, following their best joint result since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in April.
Sirotkin and team-mate Lance Stroll finished in twelfth and thirteenth place respectively, marking their best result since Stroll found the points in Baku. With regular points finishers Fernando Alonso, Nico Hülkenberg and Charles Leclerc out before the first corner Sirotkin even spent some time at the start of the race running in the points-paying positions, but eventually lost the opportunity to score his first points to Marcus Ericsson and Carlos Sainz Jr.
This “wasn’t down to luck“, said Sirotkin, but a better race pace.
“It was a reasonable race to be honest. Our race pace was closer to our competitors and I was fighting a Sauber for points at the beginning of my stint which showed we were having a proper fight, which wasn’t down to just luck.
“The prospect of getting points was a nice feeling but we just missed it. I enjoyed the couple of laps at the start, I was managing the pace and my stint. I think we had good pace compared to where we are usually.
“After the pitstop, everything looked even better. I wasn’t lucky catching the Toro Rosso at that part of the track, I struggled for a lap and a half with the tyres and that’s how Carlos (Sainz) got through, otherwise I think had enough pace to keep him behind. That would have made for a very special race for where we are and what we have but I think we can take a lot of positives from today.“
