DTM

Red Bull reserve driver Alex Albon took victory in Race 2 of DTM at the Nurburgring on Sunday, after taking pole position for the race. The 25-year-old started P1 and managed to keep himself out of trouble throughout a chaotic race around the Nurburgring, navigating two Safety Car periods, nine retirements and dominating from the start, while driving his AlphaTauri AF Corse Ferrari. Albon made an excellent getaway, but the first Safety Car was not far behind after Lucas Auer and Maximilian Buhk collided, sending the latter careering towards the pit wall. After retiring from Race 1 of the weekend, Albon kept his nose clean and led away from the restart and, by the time he had made a pit stop and emerged P9 on the road, a second Safety Car period took place and the eight cars in front had not yet pitted, putting him in a commanding position for the rest of the race. He kept the chasing Dani Juncadella at arm’s length as he made his way back up the field, and ended up crossing the line five seconds clear of the Spaniard to take a full 25-point haul. Albon scored his second podium in DTM at the last round at Zolder, and managed to finish on the top step at the Nurburgring to claim his first victory in any category since winning in Russia in Formula 2 back in 2018. Red Bull junior Liam Lawson also runs in the German touring car category alongside his Formula 2 duties, and Albon leapt above his Red Bull colleague into fourth place in the overall standings in DTM following his win on Sunday. Although he was dropped back into a reserve role by Red Bull to be replaced by Sergio Perez this season, Albon’s role in simulator driving has been praised repeatedly by the team this season, with Helmut Marko dubbing him the team’s “greatest asset” when developing the car. The British-Thai driver himself, though, acknowledged that he can only really afford to have one year away from F1 if he is to realistically return to the grid. If he is unable to do so, he made a recent trip to Indianapolis and has been holding talks about a potential move to IndyCar next season, if a seat is not made available to him in Formula 1.

As part of their promotional activities over the course of the Austrian Grand Prix weekend, Red Bull sent Alex Albon out on track in his DTM car. The British-Thai racer has signed up for DTM for this season, racing with Red Bull backing in an AlphaTauri-liveried Ferrari, alongside his duties as reserve driver for the two Red Bull F1 teams. Heading to the Red Bull Ring with the team, he was sent out on track to entertain the crowds in the stands with some demo laps at the wheel of his Ferrari.

Alex Albon has set the fastest time on Wednesday morning during DTM’s second pre-season test at the Lausitzring. The former Red Bull F1 driver topped the timesheets in his AlphaTauri-liveried Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, which is operated by Italian sportscar stalwarts AF Corse. Albon’s best time of 01:43:486 was enough to beat out the Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of HRT’s Maxi Götz by 0.177s. Götz set the most laps in the morning session by posting 46 laps around the German circuit. Third behind Albon and Götz was the second of the two Red Bull-backed Ferraris, driven by Red Bull junior Liam Lawson. The top six was completed by the Mercedes runners of Lucas Auer (Team Winward), Arjun Maini (GetSpeed) and Philip Ellis (Team Winward), while 2020 runner-up Nico Müller was the fastest Audi runner Team Rosberg in seventh place, just over half a second behind Albon. The top ten was completed by veterans Daniel Juncadella, Mike Rockenfeller and Gary Paffett. Before Albon beat Götz to the early fastest time on Wednesday morning, the German driver was fastest in a Tuesday session that was dominated by Mercedes-AMG. The Mercedes-AMG Team HRT driver led a top-five lockout for the German marque on Tuesday, leading with a time of 01:43.840. That put him 0.320s clear of GruppeM’s Daniel Juncadella, with Philip Ellis and Lucas Auer third and fourth for Team Winward respectively. Arjun Maini completed the top five for the three-pointed star in his Team GetSpeed Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, ahead of the two AF Corse Ferraris of Albon and Lawson in sixth and seventh. Behind them was the Abt Sportsline Audi of Kelvin van der Linde, with another Mercedes ninth thanks to Gary Paffett, while Nico Müller rounded out the top ten. DTM’s pre-season testing completes with a third day of running at the Lausitzring on Thursday.