Albon “disappointed” with P5 in Mexico GP qualifying

Alexander Albon admits he is left feeling “a bit disappointed” to have only qualified fifth on the grid for Formula 1’s Mexican Grand Prix.

While Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen stormed to a surprise pole position to end Ferrari’s streak of qualifying dominance, Albon had to settle for the third row of the grid and fifth.

The British-born Thai driver was less than a tenth away from out-qualifying world championship leader Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes but ended up 0.578s adrift of Verstappen’s pole time.

Albon also felt he could have turned in a better display had he not lost significant track time after crashing during FP2 and had final practice not been affected by wet weather.

“I think the car was a bit quicker than P5 today so I’m a bit disappointed,” Albon conceded.

“But after FP2, and with the rain as well in FP3, I kind of started from FP1 and if I had a bit more clean running I would have been able to improve a bit more.

“Nevertheless, we are in the mix for the race and we’ll see tomorrow.”

Albon was among a number of drivers unable to improve on their second runs, though Verstappen was the only driver in the top six who bettered his initial time despite double waved yellow flags in the final sector after Valtteri Bottas crashed hard.

Asked why he felt the drivers struggled to improve on their second runs in Q3, Albon replied: “I think that happens quite a lot, not just here but in general.

“You always know where you need to improve in the second run and then the tyres just get too hot. It’s just one of those things.”