In only his second outing in Bahrain GP, Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon scored his first F1 points after a solid drive and some luck.
Albon qualified well in 12th but a slow start dropped him back where he was also caught out by the collision of Racing Point’s Lance Stroll and Haas’ Romain Grosjean with sparks from the Canadian’s car hitting him head on at Bahrain International Circuit.
He fell back but stayed with the group in the fight for Top 10 till the very end, where he was defending from Racing Point’s Sergio Perez when the two Renault cars of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg retired from the race with three laps remaining.
This helped Albon into the points in ninth with Perez right on his tail. The Mexican claimed he could have overtaken the Thai racer if not for the safety car but nevertheless, Albon came away with two points to open his F1 points account.
“It was a busy race, I felt like I was always fighting with someone at some point – there was always something to do,” he said to the media. “I had a bad start though, I was a little bit shy in the first corner but we had a good strategy.
“Also our car had pretty good pace on the prime tyres. We lucked into points with the help of Renaults but I’ll take it.” Like others, Albon was skeptical of how the car would perform in such windy conditions in Bahrain but went along still as they could do nothing about it.
“It was so tricky with the wind out there,” he said. “We were doing the formation lap and I was like ‘I don’t know what the cars were doing’ – it was so unpredictable. The car was good though and we were good on the tyres.
“Just the start was slow and the train of cars was unbelievable, as soon as we get anywhere near anyone, the tyres would overheat and you are stuck there but I am happy.” Albon opened his account along with McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Team principal Franz Tost also praised the efforts of Albon, who is still getting into terms with racing in F1. While Albon had a smile on his face, teammate Daniil Kvyat had a race to forget after a slow start from the Russian as well which dropped him further back.
He then had a spin after contact with Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi and was handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane which pretty much sealed his fate outside the points and dropped him a lap down on the leaders.
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