Alex Albon Russia Charge is the sequel to his debut charge with Red Bull. This time he does it from pit late at the Russian Grand Prix in 2019. While he made some errors that warranted this sort of overtaking, it was beautiful nonetheless. His aggressive driving is precisely what was needed after Pierre Gasly losing valuable points for Red Bull and has created an almost insurmountable gap to second place. You can see more cutting through the field in our Alex Albon SPA Charge video content from earlier in the year on his maiden drive for Red Bull.

Alex Albon Russian Grand Prix Charge Timestamps

Albon Overtakes Russell: 0:55
Albon Overtakes Kvyat: 1:45
Albon Overtakes Gasly: 3:06
Stroll Gives Position Back: 7:14
Albon Overtakes Perez: 8:16
Albon Overtakes Norris: 10:40
Albon Overtakes Magnussen: 13:11
Albon Overtakes Sainz: 15:29

The Gasly overtake was beautiful because we get to see how he operates strategically. Albon is masterful at showing faints. He shows Gasly an “outside in” switch on the lap prior. He tests Gasly’s over-correction and executes the move on that corner exactly one lap later.

Albon Overtakes Perez

The Perez overtake is particularly impressive because he makes Sergio look like he is standing still. Perez’s mediums are only 9 laps old but the overtaking displayed here is impressive. Mind you, this is opposite to his overtake sequence on Gasly. It was set up here but he went outside, and squeezed wide. Perez didn’t think Albon would full commit. Going into turn 2, Perez goes wide and doesn’t feel the need to defend the inside position as he think’s Albons late brake would be overshot. Albon goes up the inside anyway, take a bit of a ramp over the chicane, but pulls it off. 

Albon Continues Russian Charge with Sainz

His overtake on Carlos Sainz is my favorite of this entire video. He really does play him well. Albon slowly drifts the left the second turn 3 starts to go left. Just as Albon expects, Sainz moves aggressively to the left. This ends up severely hampering his top end speed. Centripetal forces favor Albon’s line as the turn is to the left so veering into the turn creates greater friction loads. Now this isn’t the best position but Sainz is defending for his left so Albon knows that if he can get Carlos to move left, Albon can switch back right and be on a more aggressive line traveling in a straight line for longer up Sainz’s right hand side. This is the perfect set up for a wide exit similar to what he pulled on Lando Norris. He doesn’t move from behind Sainz until later into the braking zone which forces Sainz to hug the wall. This is what ends up allowing Albon to fly by as he strategically compromised Sainz’s exit.

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Carlos Sainz Team Radio After Albon Overtakes
No chance, guys.

Alex Albon Russia Charge Final Lap Pace

Albon final laps speeds:

48: 1:38.204

49: 1:37.609

50: 1:36.762 (mediums for 21 laps – Pirelli said they are good for 14)

51: 1:38.204

52: 1:38.179

53: 1:37.663

Albon’s performance is deserving of a note straight from the team boss himself. Christian Horner comes on the radio at the end and gives the rookie credit for his recovery from the pit lane. 

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Christian Horner To Albon Over Team Radio After The Race
Good job alex, good recovery from the pit lanes to p5. Thats, that, pretty decent so uh, pretty decent pace pace in the end there as well, well done.

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Alex Albon SPA Charge