After suffering a penalty in the third free practice session, Alex Albon pulled off a splendid comeback to bag his first podium of the season with third place in Race-1 at Zolder. The Thai driver, relegated five positions on the grid, drove a superb race, with a very courageous strategy that saw him pit in the final minutes. Liam Lawson’s race was different, forced to retire after being hit by a car in the early stages. We heard from the two Red Bull AlphaTauri AF Corse drivers.
Alex Albon: “It was an okay race. We obviously did the right strategy call. The pace was good, and the car had been good all weekend. The penalty, I think, was a bit unfair in free practice, so we had to pay the price today in the race. Otherwise, I think we could have definitely won the race. Unfortunately, it is just so difficult to overtake. So, to make up six positions is great, and yes, we’ll see tomorrow”.
Liam Lawson: “So it was obviously not a good day, especially for the points. The only positive is we have good tyres for tomorrow. But the actual incident itself, I think, is pretty clear from the outside. It is normal that at the back, you get quite desperate. Drivers trying to make things happen all on lap one, which is not really smart. And we just got caught out in a crash that was next to us. So, I am pretty disappointed that the driver wasn’t penalised. The first issue was qualifying in the first place. So, if we fix quali, then we are not in amongst those drivers, and we can have a better start to the race”.