Belgium Report: Spa Sunday sees Alex finish P12
An early pace advantage faded away by the chequered flag
Published
28 Jul 2024
Est Reading Time
2 min
Alex Albon again showed he has what it takes to fight in the top 10 after an impressive opening half of his 2024 Belgian GP before settling for a P13 finish, which turned to P12 after George Russell's disqualification.
Another stunning start meant his P10 grid spot became P8 on the run down to Eau Rouge.
Fernando Alonso fought back into Les Combes, but Alex was comfortably in the point-scoring positions during the opening exchanges.
The quicker, out-of-position Red Bull Racing of Max Verstappen passed both Alex and Alonso with relative ease, but Albono was still in the fight for P9.
Nico Hulkenberg triggered the midfield racers to stop early, including Alex, who led a Williams Racing double-stack stop in the pit lane.
A second set of medium tyres meant Alex had another stop to make before the race's conclusion, but he was now in a fight against cars running alternative strategies.
As Alex kept up his speed, he duelled with Yuki Tsunoda, even taking some of the grass verge to pass the VCARB in a memorable move reminiscent of his first Belgian GP.
His strategy saw some P9 running before the second pit stop, but Daniel Ricciardo had undercut Albono by then, and Alex had a fight on his hands.
More Kemmel Straight overtakes by the #23 car on Haas's Kevin Magnussen kept Alex sharp, but the hard tyres weren't giving the same performance.
The one-stopping Aston Martin drivers proved too fast on their strategy to get ahead of, leaving Alex chasing Lance Stroll in P13 until the chequered flag waved.
A post-race disqualification for Russell, whose car was underweight, meant P13 turned to P12 for Alex to head into summer with.
Speaking after the race, Alex said: "I had a good start today but ultimately; we just didn’t have the pace.
"I think we executed the race as well as we could but at the end of the day, you need pace to get points and we just didn’t have it.
"It would’ve been better if we had two sets of Hard tyres for the race but unfortunately, we didn’t, so I’m not sure if that would’ve changed things.
"We haven’t had any upgrades all year, so I think we’re just falling behind the pack too much, which makes things difficult.
"We’ve got some coming after the summer break, so hopefully, we can return more competitive."
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