Alex Albon faced another difficult race for Williams when he became the second retirement from the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The race started well for Albon after he started from P17 on the grid, making gains following his first pit stop for the team.
The 28-year-old was running in P10 and on course for crucial points for Williams, as they look to close the gap to those ahead of them in the Constructors’ Championship in the final two races.
His race was cut short by mechanical issues, with a cooling problem identified with his Mercedes power unit. It caps off a run of poor races for Albon, who didn’t even start the Sao Paulo GP due to the damage sustained in qualifying earlier in the day.
Albon can take something away from his Las Vegas weekend, as data from his car shows that he set an F1 record before retiring from the race.
Alex Albon sets F1 record in Las Vegas Grand Prix
The Las Vegas street circuit is known for being one of the most high speed tracks on the calendar, with a straight that stretches 1.2 miles down the famous strip.
Prior to his retirement, Albon managed to clock one of the fastest speeds at 229mph in the Las Vegas GP speed track according to Formula Data Analysis in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
It is the highest speed clocked so far this season, which is even higher than what was seen at Monza earlier in the season.
It falls just short of Valtteri Bottas’ record of 234mph set during the 2016 European Grand Prix during qualifying at the Baku City street circuit.
Alex Albon’s miserable flyaway races
His retirement in Las Vegas caps off a miserable run of races for Albon during the flyaway part of the season, having also suffered retirements in Singapore and Mexico.
The retirement in Singapore was due to a mechanical issue with his Williams, while his race in Mexico lasted a few hundred meters before coming to a halt after contact with Yuki Tsunoda.
| Alex Albon incidents/retirements | Reason |
| Singapore Grand Prix | Mechanical issue |
| US Grand Prix | Floor damage from contact with Valtteri Bottas |
| Mexican Grand Prix | Collides with Yuki Tsunoda |
| Brazilian Grand Prix | Crashes out of qualifying |
| Las Vegas Grand Prix | Retires with cooling problem |
The crash in Brazil severely hampered Williams whose repair bill went into seven figures, and likely means that they are going to get close to the cost cap.
Williams will be hoping for a much cleaner next couple of races, which should be helped by Colapinto’s experience at both Qatar and Abu Dhabi.
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