Alexander Albon impressed Red Bull in Belgium
Freshly arrived from Toro Rosso to replace Pierre Gasly for the last races of the season, Alexander Albon passed his trial in Belgium by securing an interesting 5th place finish after starting from the back of the grid. The Thai driver was also the only Red Bull representative at the finish after Max Verstappen's collision in the first lap.
Alexander Albon’s first race weekend with Red Bull did not start off in the best way. Indeed, his new team chose to replace the Honda engine on the Thai driver’s car, forcing him to start from the back of the grid due to the penalties inherent to this kind of strategy.
The decision paid off for him as the Toro Rosso defector moved from 17th on the grid to 5th at the finish line, benefiting from Lando Norris’s late retirement but also having to deliver an attacking race from the first to the last lap: “I’m very happy. 5th place is an incredible result and we got a good start. I was having a lot of fun and really enjoyed this race, and I’m a bit more relaxed now,” stated the smiling new Red Bull driver.
His last overtake in the final lap on Sergio Pérez was very intense, with the Mexican driver being summoned by the race stewards along with his counterpart to explain the situation: « The final lap was really good, I had a great battle with Sergio and we were both on the grass, which led to a good fight. Now, I’ll sit down with the team and understand why I was struggling at the beginning of the race with the car, but I’m still finding the little things about the single-seater and adapting to it. » concluded Albon.
A performance that did not go unnoticed by his new boss, Christian Horner, who praised the fine race of his driver: “I was very impressed by Alex’s performance and his comeback was excellent. He had a bit of difficulty at the start of the Grand Prix but things improved for him with his second set of tires,” Horner commented before explaining what happened to his other driver, Max Verstappen: “Max did not have a good start, which resulted in him being stuck in the middle of the pack at turn 1. He made contact with Kimi in the middle of the turn, which cost him a broken steering arm, ending his race. It’s a frustrating incident, but he just finished 20 consecutive races in the top five… it’s just a shame that this race ended like this at his home.”
This is what the native of Hasselt, Belgium concluded: « Of course, it wasn’t a good end to the weekend, but it’s not the worst thing that can happen in life as we saw yesterday, so I can’t call it a frustration. I had a bad start, the reaction wasn’t great, then I spun the wheel when I released the clutch. I tried to stay on the inside of turn 1, but I think Kimi expected to have a lead over me and just followed his line. I don’t think you can blame anyone and I guess he just didn’t see me. These things happen, it’s very unfortunate for the team and we will of course try to do better next week. »
