Alex Albon says his Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday, during which he fought spiritedly to earn himself a championship point, was one of the best races he's had in Formula 1.
The Williams driver had already over-delivered on Saturday when he qualified P9, his best result of the season. But he advanced three spots on the grid thanks to a raft of engine related penalties that demoted several drivers.
He lost a position at the start but held P7 during the opening stages of the race before tyre rotations set in and he fell down the order.
Relying on a medium-to-hard-to- medium two stop strategy, Albon fought back to settle just inside the top-ten in the second part of the race, later preserving P10 as he fended off a train of five cars to the checkered flag while carefully managing his tyres.
"It was a tricky one out there," Albon commented after the race. "After the start, I was like, ‘it’s gonna be a long race.’ I could already feel it on the laps to grid, that the degradation was going to be really high.
"It was amazing how the track temp just made the tyres struggle that much more. Pirelli have a very high minimum pressure limit and it just really doesn’t suit us with the downforce set-up that we had in the car.
"In sector two there was a lot of [tyre] management but at the same time I couldn’t manage much by the end of that race and we were holding on."
The Williams charger was relieved to see the chequered flag
"It was, in my opinion, one of the best races I’ve had in Formula 1," he added.
"It felt like that last stint, just holding on and couldn’t make any mistakes, obviously, or else we were going to get passed straight away.
"But the top speed saved us a little bit and I’m glad I saw the chequered flag."
Albon felt that the train of cars that had formed behind him, and which was led by Lance Stroll from Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda, Zhou Guanyu and Daniel Ricciardo, was actually to his advantage.
"The more I saw, the better I felt, because I was like ‘the train’s forming, that’s nice, that means everyone’s got a bit of pressure themselves", he said.
"When it’s just you and a car behind, they can afford to drop back, they can come back at you, do different things.
"But when you have a train, everyone has to follow the speed and they can’t afford to cool the tyres down, the brakes or whatever it may be.
"So when I saw the train, I was like, ‘yeah, good, bring it on.'"
Albon's P10 in Spa was his third points finish of the season after Melbourne and Miami. But it definitely a standout race.
"Of course we had a good race in Melbourne, we had a good race in Miami," he said.
"I feel like we were on the same strategy as everyone else today, we couldn’t be as creative just because the deg was so high today.
"Maybe it wasn’t my best race, but it felt like it was considering what we had and the pace that we had today, to get a point was a really good jo.
"It’s great for the team and for everyone, that’s the positivity that we need to take on with us into the next few races."
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