Alex Limits the Damage at Sochi Autodrom
Alex Albon finished 10th in the Russian Grand Prix after battling in traffic throughout the race in Sochi Autodrom.
Following his maiden podium at Mugello last time out, Alex headed to Sochi for the Russian Grand Prix.
The Thai driver completed 55 laps in Friday's Free Practice running - finishing P8 and P12 in the two sessions.
Into Qualifying day, Alex had a difficult time with the car and the wind around the Sochi Autodrom.
He made it into Q3, but was unable to extract much more from the car - culminating in lining up P10 for the Grand Prix on Sunday.
Sunday's race was made more difficult with Alex having to serve a 5-place penalty for a gearbox change overnight - meaning he would start from P15 for the Russian Grand Prix.
Alex survived a chaotic start to settle into the race, but spent most of the running in traffic with multiple cars within DRS range of each other - making progress difficult.
The final stint, with Alex pitting for the Medium tyres allowed him to make solid progress - with him taking P10 in the closing stages to take the final points paying position.
Alexander Albon (Car 23):
“Today was a lot of work for one point and it wasn’t an easy race. We struggled at the beginning to overtake and get through the pack on the hard tyre and so we lost a lot of time.
When we swapped to the mediums it was a little better and we did as much as we could but it was difficult out there and a frustrating race. We were just in traffic the whole time without any clean air so we couldn’t put down any really good laps.
After the gearbox penalty, today was about damage limitation and now I’m already focusing on Germany and having a cleaner weekend in two weeks’ time.”
After the first in a triple-header of races, F1 heads next to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix at the Temple of Speed on the 4-6 September.
Press Release Content: Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
Media Content: Red Bull Content Pool