Nyck de Vries could not make up much ground from eighteenth starting position in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The AlphaTauri driver managed to get back to P14, but does not look back on the race with satisfaction.

"I felt I couldn't attack enough. In itself, the speed was not bad, but I could not grab my positions fast enough and then you are stuck in 'dirty air'. Then it is so difficult to pick up momentum," De Vries explained in conversation with Viaplay.

De Vries powerless

He continued: "Williams and Haas have very good straight-line speed and then it's just extremely difficult to get past them. After the safety car we were on hard tyre, but my warm-up was just too slow. I lost the first few laps in the stint every time, and that cost me dearly. After that, it just takes a really long time to finally get past."

In the closing stages of the race, however, the Dutchman was more appreciative of the race pace. "When I had free lane to close the gap to Zhou I thought the pace was strong, but then when you get within 1.5 seconds you run into a wall," he said. Finished another race and learnt a lot, but I still need to be able to attack a bit more," said De Vries.