F1 | Abu Dhabi GP | Albon: "It Feels Great To Prove To Everyone I'm Strong"
Red Bull Racing's Alex Albon reflects on his performance and added P4 and 12 points to the team's biggest points haul of the 2020 F1 season.
As the five red lights went out for the final race of the season, Alex Albon powered past McLaren's Lando Norris to claim P4.
Race Result #AbuDhabiGP🇦🇪🏁: Max P1! 🏆👏, BOT, HAM, Alex P4 👏, NOR, SAI, RIC, GAS, OCO, STR. #F1 pic.twitter.com/7OjPRz1Ncz
— Aston Martin Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) December 13, 2020
Albon held onto P4 ahead of the McLaren duo of Norris and Carlos Sainz.
However, when Racing Point's Sergio Perez pulled over at the side of the track between turns 18 and 19 with a power unit problem, the race was reset on lap 10. An initial Virtual Safety Car (VSC) became a full safety car as marshals failed to recover the car and the top nine used that as a pit window to take on the hard tyre compounds.
After one-third of the distance past, the order was set and Albon was now 4.2s behind the seven-time champion as he was slowly losing ground to the silver arrows. But slowly pulled away from Renault Sport's Daniel Ricciardo, who was six seconds behind him.
Five laps to go bring it home Bulls! 🙌 #AbuDhabiGP 🇦🇪 #F1 pic.twitter.com/rwxtcaQokQ
— Aston Martin Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) December 13, 2020
After fifty five laps, with a little under 10 seconds behind Verstappen, Bottas settled for P2 as the race leader throttled down in the final stages. Ahead of Albon, Hamilton took the final podium spot.
The final results for Red Bull Racing's 2020 Season. Max Verstappen P1 - Race Winner and Alex Albon - P4.
Post-race, Albon comments, "I’m happy and I think if the race was a couple of laps longer I’d be even happier as I feel we could’ve got past Lewis and taken another podium today. I was managing my tyres at the beginning of the stint and maybe I was too conservative as I had lots of life left in them at the end of the race whilst everyone else’s were starting to drop off. But overall it’s a great result for the Team today and I’m happy with my race. I’ve felt very good with the car this weekend and it’s probably been my best in F1."
The class of 2020 📸 A small snapshot of the dedicated Team that made this 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘻𝘺 season possible alongside everybody back at base in Milton Keynes ❤️👏 #ChargeOn 🤘 pic.twitter.com/rTPDKx67Zr
— Aston Martin Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) December 13, 2020
He continues, "There was obviously a lot of pressure coming into this race and my only goal was to focus on my performance and do the best job possible so I’m proud of how I’ve delivered under the circumstances. It feels great to prove to everyone that I’m strong enough mentally to deal with all the external talk and keep improving. As a Team we haven’t given up, I’ve had a lot of support from everyone back at the factory and we’ve worked hard with the engineers to make me more comfortable in the car. Now I’m just looking forward to going home and relaxing with my family."
