Patience pays off for Albon as he finally gets an F1 podium

It has been a long time coming for Alex Albon, but on Sunday he finally stood on a Formula 1 podium.

The Red Bull Racing man has twice been punted out of podium places since making the switch to Tilbrook - at last year's Brazilian Grand Prix and this season's Austrian Grand Prix - but in a race of attrition, which saw just 12 cars reach the finish, Albon made a late move stick on Daniel Ricciardo to finish third behind Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.

“I’m really happy and it took a while to get here!" he said. "It’s something I’ve always wanted and one way or another we haven’t been able to get it so to be there today is pretty special.

"It’s really nice to give the team something back after they’ve supported me since day one and show them what I can do. It was a tough race and definitely not one of the easy ones.

"We struggled to get off the line so I knew I had to be aggressive to get all the overtakes done but we had a really good car and we know it’s good on the brakes so we used that to our advantage.

"When we lost two positions on the final restart, I was fired up as I wasn’t going to let the opportunity of a podium go by so I pushed hard to get third and I’m over the moon with today’s result.”

While Albon was left to celebrate, it was an opposite feeling for team-mate Max Verstappen who, for a second race in a row, retired. Slow off the start line with engine problems, Verstappen was involved in a crash at the second corner, which also saw last week's race winner Pierre Gasly eliminated. It means the Dutchman is now 25 points behind Bottas in the standings, and 80 adrift of leader Hamilton.

Verstappen said: “I am of course very disappointed as I know this could have been a really good race for us. I had a good launch at the start of the race and went around Lewis but then the car just didn’t accelerate so I lost a lot of speed and had no power. I then dropped back into the midfield and got hit from behind. When you drop into the middle of the pack in the first few corners like that it’s quite easy to get involved in a crash so I’m not disappointed about that, we shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place.

"There isn’t much more to say but it is just really disappointing for the team that we had to retire again, especially when we looked so competitive but it is of course good to see Alex maximize the result and get on the podium.”