Thailand's Alexander Albon secured a strong P4 finish in Round 2 of the Formula One World Championship for the Steiermark Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.

Following on from a dramatic opening race of the season at the Austrian Grand Prix, Formula One returned to the Red Bull Ring for the newly established Steiermark Grand Prix.

After a difficult Friday for Alex, Saturday saw the final Free Practice session washed out with torrential rain.
Qualifying did take place, albeit in treacherous wet conditions. Alex set the 7th fastest time in Qualifying, meaning he would start from the inside of the fourth row for the Grand Prix.

Sunday saw the race take place in dry conditions - where Alex made quick progress to move up into P5 and began to rein in the McLaren of Carlos Sainz ahead.

On lap eight he seized an opportunity and after closing right up to Sainz into turn three he powered past the McLaren on the run to turn four, moving into 4th position.

Alex endured a lonely race, running his one-stop strategy in P4 for the majority of the Grand Prix.
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At the end of lap 70 Alex came under heavy pressure from the Racing Point of Sergio Pérez, who was charging on fresher tyres.The Mexican attacked Alex in the closing stages - making contact at turn five.
Pérez emerged worse off, with a damaged front wing, while Alex was able to continue.

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Alex held the position o the chequered flag to secure his first points of the season with a P4 finish at the team's second home-race.

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‍Alexander Albon (Car 23):

“The race was ok and P4 is a good amount of points for the Team, especially after last week’s DNF, so we definitely needed that. On my side, I was fighting a bit further back than I would have liked and my race pace wasn’t amazing.
There’s time to find on my side but we’ve understood the car better this week and I think we know where to improve. With the long straights and types of corner here we struggled a little but I think Max and I both agree on where we can improve the car.

Towards the end of the race, Perez was very quick. On the last lap he had a decent run on me into turn four but I left him enough space. I think he ran a bit wide and we touched but we avoided a crash so it was ok and just hard racing. We’ve got a week now until Hungary to see what we can do, I think Mercedes will be hard to beat as we saw today as they’re really strong, but we’ll keep pushing.”

The third race in succession will take place next weekend in Budapest for the Hungarian Grand Prix for the third round of the 2020 Formula One World Championship.

Press Release Content: Aston Martin Red Bull Racing
Media Content: Red Bull Content Pool

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