Spa analysis: Five key factors in Alex Albon’s P10 finish

Alex Albon has done it again! A third top-ten finish for Albono in 2022 at the Belgian Grand Prix was the perfect way to get back into racing after the summer break.

As with his previous point-scoring efforts, a monster drive wasn't the only reason for Alex's P10 finish. Here are five key factors that helped him on his way.

Alex didn't restrict his Belgian bonanza to just Sunday. His best qualifying performance of the year on Saturday showed that our Thai driver had some serious pace in the FW44.

Making it to Q3 was a milestone, but there was also a lap time good enough for P6 in Q1 when our No23 split the two Mercedes cars on his way to Q2.

Penalties for others certainly buoyed Albono to his eventual third-row starting slot, yet he still reached an impressive P9 in Q3 without any wet weather, red flags, or other external factors, and he carried his punchiness over to Sunday.

It was no secret that we set the FW44 up for maximum speed at the cost of cornering grip in Belgium – but with a circuit as long as Spa, we knew there would be miles of track that Alex would have to defend on.

It was always going to be a day of checking the mirrors for car 23 after a P6 start, but our rivals filled them almost constantly to heap pressure on Albono all afternoon.

However, Alex kept a cool head, and, even more crucially, he kept a growing list of drivers behind him even when the grip wasn't there in the twisty second sector.

It was a near-faultless drive from AA23 to stay ahead in what he described as one of his "personal bests", especially on his final set of medium tyres which he ran for 18 laps.

There was, understandably, much made of how well Alex positioned his car and used the straight-line speed advantage to defend, but he also swept past others in the race.

The highlight overtake came on Lap 14 with a wonderful move on Mick Schumacher on the outside of Eau Rouge.

Alex had lined it up from the final chicane on the previous lap and almost made an overtake work at La Source. But instead, he stuck to the right side of the downhill approach to the famous Eau Rouge corner to surge past.

One tour later, Sebastian Vettel also fell victim to Alex, this time down the Kemmel Straight. The move allowed Alex to avoid losing time on his fresh hard tyres, which meant he would later be ahead of the sister Aston Martin to clinch the all-important P10 point.

With higher temperatures on Sunday, tyre degradation became a problem for every car on the Spa track and turned an expected one-stop race into a two-stopper.

Our clever strategists and Alex's ability to drive with the high-wearing tyres allowed him to pit at opportune times to minimise any possible position loss.

Alex made the first scheduled pit stop of all runners, and his early second stop – the one that secured the P10 finish – had him running the final 18 laps on one set of mediums with which he mounted his defence.

The second stop also saw Alex emerge just ahead of Nicky and in clear air, which wasn't coincidental. And speaking of Nicky...

Nicky might have suffered a difficult day from his early damage, but he still played his role in us scoring a point at the Belgian Grand Prix.

With Lance Stroll pitting right behind Albono, the Aston Martin driver was in a prime position to utilise his fresh rubber to attack Alex on his out lap.

Although Stroll eventually slotted back in behind Alex, there was no offence on brand-new Pirellis, thanks to Nicky's move on his compatriot down into Eau Rouge following Stroll's pit stop.

Nicky made sure to keep Stroll behind into Les Combes, too, meaning the Aston Martin driver’s next overtaking opportunity would have to wait until the final chicane.

Nicky's interference allowed Alex to benefit from having a sizeable 3.6s gap behind him to begin his last stint.