Race Report: Abu Dhabi GP
Alex rises from P18 to P11 with a one-stop strategy at Yas Marina
Published
08 Dec 2024
Est Reading Time
3 min
Alex’s 2024 season came to an end with a battling drive from P18 to P11 at the Yas Marina Circuit.
With a five-place grid penalty dropping him to P18 for lights out, it was always going to be an uphill battle to climb the order, but Albono got straight to work.
He successfully navigated a chaotic opening lap, climbing to P15 by the time a Virtual Safety Car was deployed to remove Sergio Perez’s stranded Red Bull.
When the race resumed on the third lap, Alex set about getting into a rhythm on his opening stint on medium tyres.
He made his way up to P13 before it was time for what proved to be his only stop of the race, switching onto hard tyres on lap 13.
Hot on Zhou Guanyu’s tail out of the pit lane, Alex made a move on the driver he had swapped helmets with earlier in the weekend before turn 6.
Alex cycled back up the order as those on two-stop strategies made their second stops, eventually climbing as high as P9.
With just six laps to go, and Albono’s tyres fading, Fernando Alonso made his way back through before the recovering Oscar Piastri did likewise, dropping Alex to P11 at the chequered flag.
A stellar effort from Albono, managing the hard tyre for 45 laps to fall just one spot shy of a point-paying finish in the finale.
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"With ten laps to go, I thought it would be hard to hold on," Alex commented after the race.
"The tyre’s grip stayed quite strong, but the temperatures just dropped off. Once the track started to cool down, I couldn’t drive quickly enough to keep the temperature in the tyres, so it felt like qualifying laps from about 25 laps in until the end, making it a very physical race.
"It’s a shame not to reward the team with a points finish. My consensus of the season is that it’s been one of missed opportunities.
"It’s easy to focus on this latter end of the season and the incidents, but realistically, we started with the car overweight when we should’ve been fighting for points.
"We bought one major upgrade, as our plan was always to focus on the future and at that point, a lot of teams naturally overtook us.
"In the end, I’m not too upset because I’m here for the long term and I know as a team we’re not interested in being the best of the midfield, we’re putting in the work now for the future to be back fighting for wins and championships and I believe in this journey we’re on.
"Thank you to Franco for being a great teammate. He earned his place in F1 during these remaining races and I’m sure I’ll be seeing him somewhere on the grid soon."
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