Alex Albon took 5th position at the Mexican Grand Prix, sealing his fourth Top 5 finish of the 2019 season so far.

Alex made his debut at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez for the Mexican Grand Prix, settling well into the track during FP1. He suffered a small setback in FP2 however, after a crash curtailed his running early on Friday.
Despite a chassis change overnight, Alex hit back strongly - sealing 5th on the grid in Qualifying, his best starting position in Formula 1 so far.

Alex made a great start from P5 on the grid. The Thai racer was ideally placed to capitalise in Turn 2, when teammate Max Verstappen clashed with Lewis Hamilton and Alex was able to slip past to claim third place behind the two Ferrari's of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc.

In the opening stint of the race, Alex was keeping touch with the two infront - hovering around DRS range of Vettel ahead, whilst holding off the threat from Hamilton behind.

Alex was the first of the leaders to pit, with the Red Bull heading for the pit lane at the end of lap 14. He took on another set of medium tyres and rejoined in P6 behind McLaren’s Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard soon pitted to shed his starting soft tyres, however, and Alex climbed to fourth place behind Leclerc who pitted on lap 15 for medium tyres.

Committing to the 2-stop strategy, Alex set about a very important second stint on the Medium tyre - aiming to capitalise on tyre life at the end of the race. Alex reemerged in 3rd position following pitstops ahead for Vettel and Bottas.
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Lap 44 saw Alex make his second stop of the race, as the team perfomed an incredible 1.9s stationary he was sent on his way equipped with a new set of hard tyres. He emerged in P5 behind Leclerc.

Despite the fears about tyre life, the one-stop strategy proved to be the correct decision, as the expected tyre drop off sadly never materialised for Alex - as he crossed the line in 5th position, one position ahead of teammate Max at the end of the 71 lap race.


‍Alexander Albon (Car 23):

“Today was ok and I had good fun. I think it was one of my best races in terms of pace and the guys in front weren’t too far ahead!
At the start we were running third and I was getting quite excited. It was great to be fighting at the front but unfortunately their one stop strategy worked out better.
We stuck to a two stop strategy but I’m not sure if we had the pace or tyre life to make a one stop work. I lost quite a lot of time getting through traffic, especially after my first pit stop when I came out behind Sainz but there’s quite a high chance of getting traffic at this circuit.
The boys also got the fastest pit stop of the race, so I obviously hit my marks! They have had a busy weekend so that was a great job and I’ll have to repay them.
Overall, I’m happy with my performance and I’m improving my consistency which is important. The lap times are coming and now I’ve got three more races to improve even further!"

Alex will be back in action in just one week's time, at the Circuit of the Americas for the US Grand Prix, on the 1-3 November.
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Press Release Content: Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
Media Content: Red Bull Content Pool

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