F1 | Bahrain GP | Albon "95% Satisfied" With Second Podium Of His Career
Red Bull Racing's Alex Albon, reflects on his second career podium after a late retirement from Sergio Perez at the Bahrain GP
Red Bull Racing's Alex Albon bounced back well from a huge crash in Free Practice 2 to take fourth on the grid for qualifying, and looked set to finish the Bahrain Grand Prix in that position when Racing Point driver Perez, who had enough speed to remain ahead of Albon during the race, suffered an MGU-K problem three laps from the end, pushing Albon to third.
The idea of luck prevented Albon from being completely satisfied with his work this evening. He's pleased that his pace on the International Circuit of Bahrain was enough to place him in a position to capitalize on the misfortune of Perez.
Red Bull driver comments, "it was a good race. Obviously Sergio had a great race too and he had the blow up, so I’m partly, not fully, fully, satisfied but... we had to be there to capitalise on it and on my side, it was a good race."
To continue, "I woudn't say I'm not satisfied. It's not like I'm 50% [satisfied], it's like I'm 95% satisfied. It's still a good race… But saying that, of course I want to be better, I want to be faster, and challenging more often for podiums. I didn't quite have the pace to overtake Sergio. But we were just there behind him waiting for something to happen and it did so P3, it was a good result, and especially a double podium for the team – that's good for them as well.”
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This marked Red Bull's first double podium since the Japanese Grand Prix of 2017 and their first podium in Bahrain since the 2013 victory of Sebastian Vettel.
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Albon admitted that after receiving a number of questions during this season whether he will continue with the team in 2021, he had a chance to play Verstappen's rear-gunner instead of getting caught up in the midfield battle-exactly the position Red Bull needs him to play regularly if they want to take the battle of the builders to Mercedes in 2021.
Albon continues, "On my side, it feels like I’ve just got to focus on my job and ignore everything else. Of course, the podium is great, but it just feels like it’s been in the making, and all the work that’s been done behind the scenes – it’s great to show it, and great for my side of the garage. We’ve been working hard all year and the progress is there,” he added. “But this... race was actually the one that I wanted: boring, nothing happening, just driving around and it was a nice podium today!”
