Report: A Steady Afternoon in Madrid for Alex

Alex made early progress before managing his tyres through the second half of the race to secure P15.

Published

13 SEP 2026

Est. reading time

2 min

Alex made a positive start to the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix at the Madring, gaining two positions on the opening lap to move from P16 to P14 after getting ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto and Yuki Tsunoda.

Bortoleto repassed Alex on the run down to Turn 2 on the following lap, dropping him to P15. Alex was managing front-left tyre wear through the early stages, before Lewis Hamilton’s brake problems and subsequent retirement on Lap 6 promoted him back to P14.

A Virtual Safety Car on Lap 15, triggered by Lance Stroll, gave the team the opportunity to bring Alex into the pits for a set of Hard tyres. He rejoined in P17 and settled into a long second stint. Pit stops from other drivers meant that Alex moved up the order into P15.

Alex spent his second stint battling with Oliver Bearman, with the pair separated by less than a second at one point. Bearman’s pit stop on Lap 45 removed the immediate threat from behind, allowing Alex to focus on managing his tyres through the closing stages.

Despite the challenges of the long stint, Alex continued to find pace late in the race, setting his fastest lap of the afternoon with a 1:39.397 on Lap 47. He maintained a comfortable gap to Yuki Tsunoda ahead and Oliver Bearman behind to cross the line in P15, concluding his first race at the Madring one position higher than he started.

“It was a tricky race and a difficult weekend for us, but I think that was probably the best we could've hoped for today.”

“Beating both Astons and one of the Haas' is what we could realistically maximise, so that was our accomplishment for the day - we're still too far behind to be properly competing with the midfield, and it was pretty tough out there.”

"We've got the upgrade coming in Baku, so hopefully that moves us up relative to the midfield and at least gets us into that fight. Realistically it's probably not big enough to shift us forward completely, but our priority unfortunately has shifted to next year.”

“The midfield teams have brought more upgrades than usual this season and the development race is moving so fast, which is something we are focused on improving.”