Alexander Albon was ‘really happy’ with his performance during Sunday’s German Grand Prix, with the Thai driver placing sixth in what was his first ever run in wet conditions in a Formula 1 car!
The Scuderia Toro Rosso driver capped off a tremendous day for the Faenza-based outfit by taking home eight well-earned World Championship points to complement the podium finish for team-mate Daniil Kvyat, who was one of the drivers to jump Albon when he made his pit stop for slick tyres late in the race.
Albon pitted only one lap later than Kvyat but such was the pace advantage of the slick tyre runners, the Russian was able to jump ahead and fight for the top three finish, while the Thai driver was left to battle the likes of Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz Jr. for the top six.
Late in the day, Albon survived contact with Red Bull Racing’s Gasly as the two ran down the straight towards the Mercedes arena, with the Frenchman breaking his front wing and damaging his left front tyre in the incident.
Never-the-less, Albon was content to bring home the points, especially after starting down in sixteenth position after a difficult Qualifying session the day before.
“It was a good race today!” said Albon. “I was a bit scared at the start, learning how the car behaves in the wet around this track, although, I’m really happy with how I performed as it was my first time in these conditions in an F1 car.
“The pace was really good, we were a bit fortunate and we timed our first pit stop right, and I was really excited racing in P4, I was thinking ‘OK here we go!’ Unfortunately, at the second stop we were caught out and pitted a lap later than Dany to switch from wet tyres to dry, so four cars passed us.
“It’s funny, it’s like a disappointing P6 because we were running in P4 for quite a while. It was an amazing job by the team, the strategy was great and we were able to bounce back from a difficult Qualifying.”
