Alexander Albon finished in 11th position at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix around the Baku City Circuit, just missing out on a points paying finish for Scuderia Toro Rosso.

Alex arrived in Baku a year after he took pole position and victory in a chaotic and frantic FIA Formula 2 Feature Race, one of the key weekends that helped him reach Formula One this season.

The Thai talent had to wait to hit the ground running, following a bizarre incident where a drain cover worked loose on the circuit and require the cancellation of FP1 in order to repair the circuit.

FP2 was a packed session where Alex combined short and long runs, setting the 8th fastest time of the session at the end of Friday's running. He carried the momentum into Saturday, taking the 8th fastest time once again in FP3, before setting the 12th fastest time in Qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix following a disrupted Q2 session that prevented him fighting for a place in Q3.

Baku usually brings unpredictability, however the race panned out rather less chaotic than expected. Alex survived an early scare and a brush with the barriers at Turn 1, running a very long opening stint - which ultimately saw him drop off the back of the battle for points. After his pitstop on Lap 12, Alex had alot of work to do to recover lost ground.
He managed to pull off a few overtakes in his STR14, but unfortunately ran out of laps to make his longer strategy pay dividend - finishing in 11th position at the chequered flag and just missing out on a points scoring finish.
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‍Alexander Albon (Car 23):

"Finishing just outside of the points isn’t what I wanted. I had an OK start, I got a bit boxed in and went in the wrong gaps and at the wrong time, then I touched the wall on the exit of Turn 1 so I was a bit cautious into the next couple of corners.

After that, our pace was decent but I think we stayed out too long and lost some time. We fell behind the whole pack after we pitted, and the problem is that everyone is so close in the midfield that we needed a bigger pace advantage than we had to make up some ground.

At the end, I was able to make a few overtakes and I had some fun out there, that’s the main thing!”

The next round of the 2019 Formula One World Championship will see the start of the European leg of the season, taking place at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona on the 10-12 May.
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Press Release Content: Scuderia Toro Rosso
Media Content: Red Bull Content Pool

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