Alexander Albon has been able to keep his fifth-place finish at the Hungarian Grand Prix after Aston Martin Red Bull Racing were cleared of any rule infringements after drying his grid box.
Before the start of the race Red Bull found themselves in trouble as Albon’s teammate Max Verstappen had crashed into the barrier at the Hungaroring while on intermediate compound tyres. This meant Red Bull had to race to fix Verstappen’s car before the start.
At the time that Verstappen’s car was being fixed, Red Bull were accused of artificially drying Albon’s grid box as he started in thirteenth place, after struggling in qualifying due to traffic.
Albon had a successful race as he made his way up the field into fifth place. After battling with the Scuderia Ferrari cars, he managed to make his passed but could not catch Lance Stroll in the BWT Racing Point F1 team car.
Even though Albon put in a good effort to recover doubt was quickly cast over his position based on “alleged artificially drying the grid box of car 23, alleged breach of Article 22.3 of the FIA Formula One Sporting Regulations.”
The team were expected to be called to the stewards as early in the race a bulletin from FIA technical delegate Jo Bauer, had confirmed that Red Bull had attempted to dry the grid box.
“The Aston Martin Red Bull Racing team artificially dried the gridbox of car number 23 by using the engine cooling air of their leaf blowers when using these to cool the car engine,” Bauer wrote.
“As this is in contradiction to the race director’s notes, I am referring this matter to the Stewards for their consideration.“
It was unknown what penalty the team could face, as it could have been a time penalty or disqualification for using the leaf blowers to dry the spot.
However, the team were cleared of attempting to dry the grid box, and Albon was able to keep his fifth place finish.
