Netherlands Report: Pushing forward to P14 in Zandvoort
Alex shrugged off his Qualifying disqualification with a fiesty Dutch GP
Published
25 Aug 2024
Est Reading Time
3 min
A fired-up Alex Albon took to the dunes of Zandvoort to bring his car home five positions stronger than where he started in the 2024 Dutch GP.
Alex started the race from the back row after receiving a disqualification from his P8 qualifying efforts on Saturday for a technical infringement.
With Kevin Magnussen starting from the pit lane, Albono immediately set to work on improving his P19 starting slot.
Lap 1 saw an improvement to P17, fighting past Guanyu Zhou and Logan Sargeant.
Esteban Ocon in the Alpine was the next driver to tackle, and Alex spent lap after lap probing to find a way past the Frenchman into Turn 1.
Rather than losing time behind Ocon, Williams chose to pit Alex earlier than others to find clean air, and he became the first driver to swap tyres in the race.
Equipped with fresh Pirelli hard compound rubber, Alex set the Fastest Lap and put the new tyres to work as others continued losing grip.
As the laps ticked by, the early undercut worked to get track position, and an impressive P11 placement was Albono's reward by half distance.
A confluence of strategies met on track as Magnussen, who had yet to stop, caused a five-car fight down the pit straight.
Alex needed to drive on reflex to avoid the Haas driver's defending and outdrove Magnussen exiting the final corner for P10.
Frustratingly, Pierre Gasly was right on the Williams' tail and took the place at Turn 1, with both Aston Martin cars on new tyres soon getting by, too.
Nonetheless, Alex kept pushing and switched to a two-stop strategy to keep in the fight.
With some assistance from Sargeant, who dutifully held up other cars but not Alex, car #23 spent the final laps closing in on Esteban Ocon for P14.
Using a DRS tow from Sergio Perez's Red Bull ahead in P6 after lapping Alex, the intelligent driving had the Alpine within sight on Lap 70 of 72.
A sweeping move around the outside of Turn 1 secured P14 for Alex, and the pace suggests points would be possible had that P8 qualification stood.
Speaking after the race, Alex explained where he thought he could've finished otherwise, saying: "It was a tough one today.
"Being out of position at the start meant we unfortunately didn’t have the pure pace to get through the midfield battle.
"If we started where we should have, P9 was likely possible for this circuit, but that’s just how it is.
"Unfortunately, our championship rivals are the ones that benefited the most from this, which is a bit of a double whammy.
"We did try different things with our strategy but were covered off by other cars in front of us who were trying to help their teammate, so it’s a bit unfortunate.
"In terms of silver linings, it’s positive that the upgrade worked and the car is strong, so we’ll take the challenges and learnings from this tough weekend and try to focus on Monza."
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