Alexander Albon felt like he was completing “qualifying laps lap-after-lap” en route to his maiden Formula 2 victory in the Azerbaijan feature race.
Polesitter Albon eventually claimed victory in a frenetic race, in which he initially dropped to third behind George Russell and Nyck de Vries following the pitstop phase of the race.
Russell and de Vries slipped out of contention for victory when the two nearly collided at Turn 1 during a safety car restart with nine laps to go, both losing significant time in the run-off area.
Prior to the safety car and this subsequent incident, de Vries had built a six-second gap to Albon and Russell was a further five seconds clear.
“It was really hard for me, to be honest, because George and Nyck were so quick ahead of me,” said Albon. “I was kind of in no-mans-land, nobody in front of me or behind me, and the team were eager for me to catch up.
“It felt like, at one point, I was just doing qualifying laps lap-after-lap, and I was like ‘guys, I’ve got to calm down here, you’re telling me I’ve got to faster in sector two’ and I’m skimming the walls everywhere.
“And I’m like, I know my limit, I can’t give it much more than this. I had so many moments where my heart was in my mouth.”
Albon also ran wide at Turn 1 on the restart, allowing Antonio Fuoco into the lead. With five laps remaining, Albon closed in and passed Fuoco on the pit straight, after the Charouz Racing System driver lost time by being the first driver to enter a smoke cloud caused by Artem Markelov’s engine failure.
“I really couldn’t see anything, other than Antonio’s rear wing, so I figured as long as I could see it I’d be okay,” said Albon.
“I think we all backed off, although I probably backed off a little bit less than Antonio as I could see him, and that gave me the opportunity to get the run on him down the start/finish line.
“From there, it was just a case of not hitting the wall.”
