15/07/2019
NEWS STORY
Despite a strong performance, Alexander Albon left Silverstone empty handed, the London-born Thai driver eventually finishing twelfth.
One of six cars to pit on lap 13, Albon, who rejoined the race in 14th, having been seventh before his stop, was scheduled to make a second stop later in the race.
However, an issue with the car's high-voltage system meant the car was unsafe to work on in terms of a regular pit stop, therefore it was decided to leave him out on the same set of tyres.
Running tenth, the youngster was passed by Hulkenberg on the penultimate lap, and Norris shortly before the chequered flag fell.
"We had a caution from our high-voltage system," revealed Honda F1 technical director, Toyoharu Tanabe according to Motorsport.com. "We will investigate exactly why it happened
"If you have some caution from the high-voltage system you need to turn the engine off to touch the car," he explained. "Which is better... you keep running, or stop and turn the engine off to change the tyres? The compromised answer which we and the team made was to stay out.
This is the first time in one and a half years it's happened in person, trackside," he admitted.
"It wasn't an easy race for me managing the tyres," said Albon. "When the safety car came out some drivers got lucky, others didn't. We had an issue with the car where we couldn't pit or touch the car, so we had to stay out while others around us pitted.
"It was a frustrating race, but that's the way it goes sometimes."
Revealing that by the end he could "see the carcass coming off", the Thai said: "Another lap and we would have ruined the tyres. I still think our pace was good. It's just we were on very old tyres."
Check out our Sunday gallery from Silverstone, here.