Alex's Mexico March Through the Field
Alex Albon made good progress through the field in the Mexico City Grand Prix, just missing out on points after a charging drive for Williams Racing.
Mexico City and the high altiude is a unique challenge on the calendar, with high speeds and low downforce proving a big test of man and machine.
A difficult qualifying saw Alex line-up P19 on the grid, after an oversteer moment on his final run denied him a shot at Q2.
Following post-session penalties, Alex would start from P17 for the Grand Prix.
Alex made a strong start on the Medium tyre and settled into his strategy for the afternoon, putting in two incredible stints chasing a top-10 finish in Mexico City even after a P17 start. Alex crossed the line in P12 after evoking his tyre whispering abilities again by maximising a one-stop strategy and extending the life of his Pirellis.
Alex made it to Lap 38 on the mediums and dug deep to put 32 laps on the softs. A great stop from the mechanics helped to leapfrog Alex past Pierre Gasly and Guanyu Zhou.
Just 2.5 seconds separated Alex from a point-scoring Mexico City Grand Prix, but Albono was fighting amongst the upper midfield after falling to P19 from the race start to show the underlying competitiveness in the FW44.
Alex Albon, Williams Racing Driver #23:
“Honestly, I’m really happy with today and it feels like our pace was relatively strong from where it was on Friday.
We had a tricky start so we dropped to 19th and despite a few retirements, we overtook everyone else, so I think it was a good race from us."
“It was a thermal race with the dirty air making the brakes hot and then the tyres hot, so we did well with our strategy to find the gaps of clean air.”
“It was really close today and I’m feeling good with a lot of positives to take away.
I think we’re getting better at solving the weaknesses in the car and at a circuit that doesn’t suit us we were able to set up the car and compete with those around us.”
Brazil will host the next race of the championship at Interlagos for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix on the 11-13 November for the penultimate round of the 2022 Formula One World Championship.