Albon: Mexican GP my best race yet for Red Bull

Alexander Albon believes he turned in his “best race” yet for Red Bull as he claimed fifth place at Formula 1’s Mexican Grand Prix. 

Having made a brilliant start from fifth on the grid, Albon moved up to third place when Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton tangled at Turn 2.

Albon kept tabs with the leading Ferrari duo throughout the opening stint until Red Bull attempted an undercut strategy by putting Albon onto a two-stopper and pitting earlier than its rivals. 

The move backfired when Albon lost crucial time stuck behind McLaren’s Carlos Sainz when he rejoined the track following his pit stop, though he was still able to claim a strong fifth. 

“It was good fun,” Albon said. "I had good fun at the start mixing it with the top guys but obviously we went for the two-stop. 

“I don’t think it would have been that bad, I’m not sure if we could have done a one-stop, we’ll have to have a look back at the factory.

“But otherwise we got held up with Carlos [Sainz] coming out of the pitlane and lost like six seconds. It’s a shame but otherwise I think it was my best race in terms of pace.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was pleased with Albon’s drive and believes the British-born Thai is getting “stronger” with each passing race weekend.

“He’s impressed the whole team with his performance to date, and each weekend he’s progressing, he’s getting stronger,” Horner explained.

“It was pretty decent race for Alex,” he added. “I’m not sure he would have held the third place, he had Lewis behind him and Lewis looked a bit quicker. It probably would have been difficult to keep Leclerc behind as well.

“I think he’s getting closer and closer to the pace, he’s generally doing a pretty decent job and he’s stepping up and stepping up. Considering he lost pretty much all of P2, I think his recovery has been very strong.”