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How Alex Albon's slow pitstop helped him score points
- Rafael Diaz Lehmann
Alexander Albon has done the impossibe and took his Williams F1 car from last on the grid into the points, something that sounds scarcely believable. Through risky strategy that saw a 57-lap stint on the hard tyre, and incredible skill behind the wheel, the Thai driver gave he Williams team their first point since Belgium last year.
"It was good. It was a hard one, we fought hard. It was like qualifying for 30 laps for us. I don't know what it is about that hard tyre but it suits us everytime we put it on," the British-born Thai driver said to Sky.
This result wouldn't have been achieved without a crazy strategy where Albon took his hard tyres from the start of the Grand Prix all the way to the penultimate lap of the race, before bolting on a set of soft tyres and driving away from Alfa Romeo's Guanyu Zhou for the final points-paying position.
A helpful slow stop?
According to Albon, when he put on the soft tyres for the final lap, the slow stop actually helped him out in the situation. "We had a slow stop and it kind of helped because I came out alongside Zhou and he couldn't get a run on me."
Onboard footage shows Albon exiting the pits barely ahead of the Chinese driver. However, when Zhou tries to power past Albon on the exit he loses grip and nearly spins around, allowing the Williams to dash away into the points.