Redbull Racing driver, Alexander Albon had run-ins with the AlphaTauri drivers, Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat during the Eifel Grand Prix.
Albon did not get a good race experience at the Nurburgring on Sunday. This was after he dropped to the seventh place in the opening stages of the race despite starting at the fifth position. The Thai also pitted very early and came back through the field but was stuck behind his former teammates Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat.
At first he damaged the tyres of his RB16 when he locked up trying to pass Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri AT01 while they were approaching the first corner forcing the Italian Grand Prix winner off the track. Albon later tried to overtake Kvyat in the other AlphaTauri and it seemed like he had accomplished the move when Kvyat ran deep in the final chicane, only for Albon to pull up along his line ripping off his front wing. This move earned Albon a five-second penalty which was implemented when he pit to change his flat-spotted tyres sustained after the contact with Gasly.
The puncture was not as simple as it seemed, because it was later found out by his team that his side pods had collected debris from the contact with Kvyat and had punctured his radiator in the process. This saw him retire from the race and had to watch his teammate, Verstappen as he took another podium finish after he finished the race second.
“The pace in the car was good today so it’s a shame to have a result like this and not see where we could have finished the race. I had a lock-up avoiding contact on the first lap which meant I had to pit really early because I had severe vibrations from a flat spot on the tyre,” Albon said.
“I don’t really know what happened with Daniil and I need to watch it back. I think he may have run a little wide into the chicane when we did the re-start and I guess it was a bit of misjudgment from my side.”
“After that, the team saw the temperatures rising and I was asked to box and then retire the car. It initially looked like a power unit issue from the data but the team investigated and found that some debris had pierced the radiator system which led to the rising temperatures,” the Thai added.
“It is definitely not the way I wanted to end the weekend as the car felt good, but onwards and upwards and I’m looking forward to Portimao in a few weeks’ time.”
