Red Bull boss Christian Horner was delighted with Alex Albon after his recovery from 17th to fifth at the Belgian Grand Prix.

The Thai driver was left to fly the flag following Max Verstappen's first lap crash and did so amicably with a flurry of overtakes to secure his best finish in Formula 1.

With Albon effectively on a trial at Red Bull to make his case for a 2020 seat, Horner admits the early signs are very positive.

“Alex has impressed me all weekend with his approach, his feedback, his pace,” he said via Crash.net.

“In the race, he did a very mature job. The first half of the race we weren’t quite as competitive on the harder tyre as we were on the softer tyre but he didn’t make any silly mistakes or take any silly risks. He just dialled himself in."

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The 23-year-old's charge was highlighted by two moves, sweeping past Daniel Ricciardo on the outside of Ickx corner and then running two wheels on the grass to pass Perez for fifth on the Kemmel Straight.

"We know Daniel’s a tough racer… his move on Daniel, his move on Sergio on the last lap were impressive. To go from P18 to P5 was a very good start," the Red Bull boss continued.

“I think it was an encouraging start for him. Hopefully, he’ll have a clean weekend with a straightforward qualifying in Monza.

“But certainly he’s made a very favourable impression with the engineering team and in the garage. Certainly a good start.”

As for Albon himself, he admits the pace on the soft tyre came as a relief having struggled initially using the mediums from the start.

“I was expecting to overtake a lot of cars and I didn’t. So we decided to pit a bit earlier to get on the soft tyres and I felt a lot more comfortable in the car and it all came alive. I had some good battles along the way," he explained.

“On my side, I’ve just been focusing on it [the first weekend at Red Bull] like a normal weekend and getting down to my business. Of course you still want to do well and have a good first race, and I’m quite happy with how it went.

“I do definitely think there’s some areas to work on, though. Just heads down really, I’ve got a few days to focus on Monza.”