Albon rejects “struggling” claims after F1 Q2 British GP exit

Alexander Albon says he’s not concerned by his performances after he failed to make Q3 for the second Formula 1 qualifying session in a row at the British Grand Prix.

Albon could only manage 12th in qualifying at Silverstone, while Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen will start third behind the two Mercedes.

He has endured a disrupted British GP after he crashed out in FP2 and suffered an electrical issue ahead of qualifying in final practice, which has compromised his running.

The Thai driver has rejected claims that he is struggling and believes there have been a lot of positives in the opening three rounds of 2020.

“Firstly, I don’t see it as struggling, I feel like race one we had a very strong race, race two we finished fourth and three we finished fifth,” Albon said. “If that’s struggling, I’d be worrying about other things. I’m happy with the first three races, things haven’t gone our way.

“I’m not worried in the sense it’s been tough, it’s just tough qualifying and on my side and I’m just focused on trying to get more comfortable with the car.”

While Albon has struggled for qualifying performance in recent races, he’s often shown a better turn of pace come race day. 

“Sundays have tended to go pretty well for me,’’ Albon added. “We made up a lot of positions in the last few races we’ve done and obviously we don’t want to keep doing it. I think when it comes to Sunday we tend to go a bit better. We have free tyre choice obviously tomorrow so we can hope for some high degradation, which does look like it’s going to be on the cards tomorrow.

“I should be able to make up some positions. We didn’t do a long run after FP2 so that is a little bit more tricky but we will go through the data now, have a look and see what we need to do in terms of myself and the car - tyre management and things like that.”