Albon ‘not sure’ what compromised race pace

Michelle Foster
Alex Albon

Alex Albon has admitted his penalty for causing the collision that ended Kevin Magnussen’s British Grand Prix was “50-50”

Alexander Albon was left to ponder what could have been after a mistake in qualifying left him fourth on the Australian GP grid while an early spin cost him in the grand prix.

Albon joined Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Antonio Giovinazzi and the Williams team-mates of George Russell and Nicholas Latifi in Sunday night’s Virtual Australian Grand Prix.

Although the Red Bull driver showed solid pace in practice, he forgot to use his DRS in qualifying leaving him fourth on the grid.

Lining up for the 29-lap race, the rules were equal car performance, damage was switched off, and each competitor could choose if they wanted driver assist turned on or not.

Albon made a great start to move up to third only to suffer a big spin and fall all the way down to 17th place.

A hard slog that included a great mid-race tussle with Jenson Button had him recovering to eighth on the night.

The race was won by Leclerc.

“I’m not sure what happened this evening,” Albon said in his esport race report.

“I’ve been pretty quick in practice but that didn’t reflect in my performance in the race, especially in qualifying where I forgot to open my DRS which was a bit silly.

“I had a good start but then I made a mistake on the first lap and had to play catch-up for most of the race. I had a good battle with Jenson Button which was good fun though.”

Albon’s team-mate for the night, England cricket player Ben Stokes, was P18 and a lap down on the race winner.

Albon reckons the Brit did a good job given his lack of experience with the game.

“Ben was a great team-mate, we practiced together quite a bit in the lead up and he just kept getting better and better,” he said. “I think he did a really good job in the race.

“This game really isn’t easy, look how many drivers spun, so for Ben to finish only a lap down is impressive.

“Despite the result, it was good fun, I really enjoyed it and hopefully I can join some more virtual races in the future.”

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