Image by LAT
'I'm a bit upset, but it's racing' - Albon
Alex Albon admits the lost podium in the Brazilian Grand Prix left him a little bit upset, but says he wasn’t angry at Lewis Hamilton following the collision that cost him a likely second- or third- place finish.
Hamilton hit Albon at Turn 10 when trying to overtake for second place on the penultimate lap of the race, tagging the Red Bull into a spin and earning himself a five-second time penalty. Albon was relegated to the back of the field and didn’t score, having looked set for his maiden Formula 1 podium.
He thought the six-time world champion could have waited to make his move: “Of course he didn’t mean to do it; I’m not angry at Lewis,” Albon said. “It’s one of those things. Of course I wanted the podium and I felt like we deserved it, but that’s it, really. I’m a bit upset but it’s racing and we’ll focus on Abu Dhabi.
“To be honest, I thought if he wasn’t going to overtake me there then he overtake me into Turn 1. He had the pace. Of course I think he wanted to get past me quickly to get to Max (Verstappen) before the end of the race, which I understand of course; but we lost out there.”
Explaining the situation from his perspective, Albon says he had braked late to discourage Hamilton from trying to overtake him from a long way back, then lost sight of the Mercedes to his inside.
“I obviously saw there was a gap out of Turn 9 and thought that was enough not to worry into Turn 10. I knew he had a bit more grip so I went in a little bit hotter just to make sure he didn’t have any ideas, and it was just one of those things. Once you commit, you can’t really see at that spot where I was, so I was like ‘Has he gone in? Has he not?’ and he did so…
“It was a good race. It was alright.”
On route to what looked to be a certain podium finish ... Image by Dunbar/LAT
Until that point, Albon had performed well, overtaking Sebastian Vettel with a strong move into third place following the previous Safety Car restart. He says he will try to focus on the highlights rather than his disappointment.
“That’s a positive to take from the race. It was cool because Max got past Lewis and I got past Seb. It was good fun, I enjoyed it. I feel like we were quite strong on the straights and it’s quite nice.
"I feel like that should have been (a podium), but onto the next race.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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