Zhou Guanyu says his final-lap pass on Alexander Albon in yesterday’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which wasn’t broadcast during the race, was “the best overtake I’ve done all season.”
The Alfa Romeo driver swept around the outside of his Williams rival at the high-speed turn nine to claim 12th place on the final tour at Yas Marina.Zhou made his second pit stop for a set of soft tyres with 14 laps to go, falling to 16th place. He passed Mick Schumacher and Pierre Gasly which left him with just one lap to find a way past Albon, who was on an older set of medium tyres.
He used DRS on the run to the turn six-seven chicane to get a run on the outside of Albon and successfully moved ahead. But Albon was able to re-pass Zhou on his outside in the second DRS zone as they approached turn nine.
Undeterred, Zhou swept back to the outside of the Alfa Romeo as they approached the corner. Braking deep into the rapid left-hander, he drew fully alongside Albon, who had to leave him space at the exit. “Let’s fucking go!” shouted Zhou as he left the Williams behind.
Although his aggressive strategy and last-pass didn’t help Alfa Romeo in their successful fight with Aston Martin for sixth place in the constructors championship, Zhou was thrilled with the end to the final race of his rookie season.
“We had to sacrifice my strategy to hold on through the last laps, and I think we did a good job with that,” he said. “We truly gave it all out there, it was an amazing fight on track and I think also the best overtake I’ve done all season.”
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Pictures: Zhou’s last lap pass on Abon
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2022 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
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Jere (@jerejj)
21st November 2022, 15:27
Not the first time a last-lap pass has gone unseen on the world feed footage generally or at YMC, as Sainz’s last-lap pass in the 2019 race went equally unseen. Nice & brave-ish outside line pass, nevertheless.
Martin (@f1hornet)
21st November 2022, 16:32
I get that in the last lap you need to cut to the leader crossing the line to win, but they seem to do a poor job of showing replays of last lap action, instead cutting to radio chat from the podium guys.
AlanD
21st November 2022, 23:20
Martin, I always find it frustrating when you have a great last lap battle for second and third or lower and they cut to showing the main straight so we can see a leader driving over the finish line, followed by the mandatory in-car shot of the driver and the mutual admiration speech with the pit wall. The past lap is when you might get some of the best all-or-nothing passes, and it is a shame the TV companies think what we most want to see is a celebrity waving a chequered flag. I think some of the graphics and picture-in-picture of F1 is pretty poor.
M
21st November 2022, 20:45
If your highlight in F1 is racing a Williams it might be best not to shout too loudly.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st November 2022, 23:28
How things changed after the 90s and the 00s!
ttongsul (@ccpbioweapon)
22nd November 2022, 13:14
yes this is some 4d chess straw clutching when the ‘highlight’ of the season is finishing 12th against the slowest car on the grid, it must be the easiest job in the world to be zhous PR manager when finishing a race is declared a Senna-Lotus like performance.
zhou has been mediocre in his debut season which isn’t any surprise looking at his lower formula results 3 years in F3 and 3 years in F2 with zero titles.
Tsunoda did far better in his debut but people called him “red flag yuki” and reckless, I guess Japanese drivers in F1 always get held to an higher standard for dome reason..
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
22nd November 2022, 23:12
Last year I was really hoping for Yuki to have a great rookie showing, but it was only mediocre compared to Zhou’s first season this year. Yuki is fast, but he made too many mistakes. Zhou was solid.