page_title: Alexander Albon
section_title: ART Grand Prix (2017)
hierarchical_section_title: Alexander Albon / Early career / Formula 2 Championship / ART Grand Prix (2017)
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: 05 Alexander Albon beim Rennwochenende in Österreich 2018 (2)
context_page_description: Alexander Albon Ansusinha is a Thai-British racing driver, currently competing in Formula One for Red Bull Racing under the Thai flag. He raced for Toro Rosso for the first half of 2019, before being promoted to Red Bull for the second half of the season, replacing Pierre Gasly who returned to Toro Rosso.
  After becoming part of the Red Bull Junior Team in 2012 he was promoted to open-wheel cars in the form of a seat with EPIC Racing during the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 2012 season, finishing 38th out of 49 in his debut year. He stayed in Formula Renault 2.0 for two more seasons having secured a seat with KTR, finishing 16th in 2013 and 3rd in 2014. In 2015 Albon switched to European Formula 3, finishing 7th overall. A year later, ART signed Albon to race alongside Charles Leclerc in the GP3 Series, finishing second in the drivers championship only to his teammate. Albon was given a seat once again by ART in 2017 to race in the FIA Formula 2 Championship where he finished his maiden year in 10th position.
context_section_description: In 2017, Albon graduated to the FIA Formula 2 Championship, with ART. His teammate for the season would be Nobuharu Matsushita, who at the time was also signed as a development driver for McLaren.
  He made his debut in Bahrain, where he started in 9th place on the starting grid for the feature race and finished 6th. For the sprint race Albon qualified 3rd on the grid, behind Luca Ghiotto and his teammate, 
  Matsushita. However, mechanical problems forced Matsushita to start from the pitlane promoting Albon to second. Albon struggled for grip for the majority of the race and finished in 7th position.
  At the Spanish round Albon placed 3rd on the provisional starting grid for the feature race. Charles Leclerc led into turn one, but found himself under fire from Ghiotto and Albon after locking up. Leclerc began to pull away from Ghiotto, who began to fall into the clutches of Albon, who subsequently made a move into turn one and took second place from 
  Ghiotto. Leclerc pitted on lap seven, along with Matsushita, leaving Albon with the lead of the race. Sergio Canamasas ground to a halt on lap 10 owing to problems with the car. Despite this, he did not pull off the track to retire – instead remaining on the track and gesturing to the marshals asking for a push-start. The dangerous position of the car initially brought out the virtual safety car and eventually, the safety car itself. As the race resumed, Leclerc and Ghiotto began to scythe through the pack. Oliver Rowland eventually pressured Albon into a mistake to take the lead of the race, although both still had an impending pitstop to make. With the fresh rubber, Albon and Rowland were staging a comeback with both drivers challenging for the podium toward the latter stages of the race, Albon later finished the race in 5th position. In the sprint race, Albon started 4th on the grid and enjoyed a well fought battle with Leclerc for the majority of the race and after battling for a number of laps, Leclerc finally passed Albon for fifth place. Later in the race however Albon dropped back, finishing the race in 8th position.
  At the Monaco round, Albon qualified second on the grid with a time of 1:19.321 seconds. In qualifying, the grid was separated into two Groups due to safety concerns over the short and tight nature of the circuit. Albon was part of the 'Group B' qualifying and managed to gain the fastest time in that group, only qualifying 12 hundredths of a second behind Leclerc who qualified in Group A. After an aborted start due to Antonio Fuoco and Sean Gelael's engines stalling on the grid, Leclerc led into the first corner, followed by Albon. A concertina effect occurred at the Grand Hotel Hairpin as Canamasas was spun, causing Gelael to lose his front wing and bringing out a local yellow. Later in the race, Albon found himself stuck behind the slower moving Norman Nato and Jordan King, which eventually caused him to lose places, finishing the race in a disappointing 4th position. In the Sprint Race, Albon started 5th on the grid, and after a very tight race he dropped back to finish in 6th position.
  Albon missed the Baku round of the Championship due to injury. Albon had sustained a broken collarbone whilst out on a mountain biking training ride, and was unable to compete due to the over-the-shoulder seat belts used in Formula 2.
  Albon was back in action for the fifth round of the championship, stating that his initial feeling on returning to action after breaking his collarbone was "a lot better" than he expected. He confirmed that the bone was still "clearly broken" following an x-ray on the Tuesday before the race weekend, and explained that the main issue he is having in the car is a "numb feeling" from the scar he received during successful surgery after the crash. Albon finished the practice session in 8th, which showed that despite the injury, the chance for his first podium in Formula 2 was a possibility. Albon qualified in 4th for the Feature Race, however was later promoted to third on the provisional starting grid after Sérgio Sette Câmara was disqualified 
caption: Albon at Red Bull Ring in 2018
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