Monaco Report: Race Day

Alex secured his first 2024 points with P9 in the principality

Published

26 May 2024

Est Reading Time

2 min

Alex converted his sensational Saturday lap that had him reach Q3 into a P9 finish in the 2024 Monaco GP.

That result means the first points of the season for both Albono and his Williams Racing team.

A Lap 1 red flag meant Alex had to get his elbows out on two occasions, with the race restarting some 44 minutes after the original lights out.

He kept the attacking Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon behind at the first start and even reached P8 as Ferrari's Carlos Sainz suffered a puncture.

Debris left behind from a heavy incident between Sergio Perez and both Haas drivers caused the red flag to wave.

Due to red flag rules, Sainz returned to his P3 starting position when the lights went out again, demoting Alex back to P9.

Despite pushing Yuki Tsunoda in the opening laps, the RB driver kept Alex behind, which became the story of Albono's race.

The red flag saw most drivers, including Alex, change tyres to remove any necessity to pit during the race, so there was no chance of an undercut strategy to improve.

Although Alex had more pace, the tight and twisty nature of Monte Carlo meant he had to follow the RB's rear wing all race long.

Nonetheless, he was far ahead of the chasing Gasly in P10 and eventually crossed the line with a comfortable gap to secure two world championship points.

Speaking after the race, Alex said, "Whilst you’d rather have a slightly more exciting race to win points at, I’m still happy.

"P9 for the team and our first points of the season which means a lot to us.

"You never want to be pointless, especially for the team's morality, so hopefully this will be a nice kickstart to the season.

"It was a bit frustrating out there as you could see how much pace Yuki had but he was managing excessively, so it was a very slow and painful race; I was struggling to stay focused.

"We’ve added small amounts of performance to the car so it’s good to see these upgrades working and that we’re able to stay around a similar pace to our direct competitors."