Austria Report: Race Day

A challenging day at the Red Bull Ring

Published

30 Jun 2024

Est Reading Time

2 min

It was a tough Sunday in Spielberg for Alex as he ended the race P15.

Albono made a clean start at the Red Bull Ring, trading positions with those around him before eventually establishing P15 as Charles Leclerc was forced to pit early following contact.

Our Thai racing driver was then called into the pits on Lap 12 for a set of hard tyres, which saw him drop four places but keep in good distance with Yuki Tsunoda's RB.

As the race matured, it became clear Alex would contend with the duos of Alpine and Aston Martin, with each driver exchanging track positions in line with their pit strategies.

However, on Lap 40, as Albono came in for fresh hards to see him to the finish, he crossed the white line on pit entry and was handed a five-second time penalty.

In spite of the setback, our No23 continued to push hard, and as the final few laps approached, he climbed to P14 due to Lando Norris’ retirement after contact with Max Verstappen.

Still, it was too much for Albono to overcome in the end, as Tsunoda kept him within reach of the five seconds needed, leaving him to drop to P15.

Speaking on the race, Alex said: "I believe P12 or P13 was possible today.

"I know it’s not points but I don’t like finishing behind where I think we could’ve finished. With the pit stops, I lost a lot of time, either fighting with cars then boxing straight afterwards or coming out into dirty air.

"I don’t think it was easy out there with it being a short track and pit stops being a bit trickier, and I know it was my fault for crossing the line, but it’s just frustrating.

"We do have some learnings from this weekend that we can take to Silverstone, however there are still some questions as I didn’t expect us to be lacking in performance this much.

"Hopefully, we won’t suffer the same problems next week and can come back stronger."

There is plenty to take on board and then pivot towards the future as we have another short turnaround to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone next weekend!