Albon labels FP2 crash 'a careless mistake'

Alex Albon lamented "a careless mistake" in the early running of second practice, which left him missing the remainder of the session at the Mexican Grand Prix.

Early in the session, Albon lost the rear turning into Turn 8 and slid across the run-off area before hitting the barrier, damaging the right-hand side of his car. The incident brought an end to his session after just five laps and Albon took full responsibility as one of a number of drivers to make an error on Friday.

“I'll have a look at it because it did go really quick, I wasn't expecting it to go like that,” Albon said. “Yeah, just a bit of a careless mistake, used a bit too much track. These things go quickly. I did snap it, it went really quick.”

Additionally, Albon admits such a mistake is even more costly given his lack of experience at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with Red Bull looking a candidate for victory this weekend.

“We missed a good chunk of long-running data as well, so it won't be easy," Albon said. "I think we'll have to change the run plan for tomorrow in FP3, and then try and find a good solution for qualifying.

“I think the car's good. I think it shows what the car was like the last two years. Just got to rebuild the rhythm a little bit for tomorrow and then fight for the qualifying.”

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Team-mate Max Verstappen was a little over 0.1s off the fastest time in both sessions on Friday, but warns he doesn’t expect Red Bull to be able to match Ferrari in qualifying trim.

“I don't think qualifying we can fight with them,” Verstappen said. “They are just too quick. The rest is all pretty much in the same speed range, but they are just miles ahead. But that's how it is at the moment. We just can't gain the time back in the corners, unfortunately. I guess for us we just have to focus a bit more for the race, see that we can keep the tires under control, and then I think it will still be a good race.”