Our No43 made one of the sport's top five moves in October when he darted out of the wheel tracks of Fernando Alonso at Circuit of the Americas’ twelfth turn.
Franco had kept tabs on the Spaniard throughout the twisty first sector to line up a pass along Austin’s long back straight.
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The Aston Martin threw a strong defence, but it was not enough to deny the Argentine who made it to the apex first and held on through the slow turns of 13 through 16.
It was a sensational late move that saw the driver with the fewest race starts on the grid send it on the sport’s most experienced racer and climb into the top 10.
It’s not the first time a Williams racer has been up for this award, with Alex Albon winning the trophy for the month of June after his spectacular double pass in Montreal.