‘Unprofessional Albon showed poor judgement’

Michelle Foster
Red Bull and AlphaTauri

Red Bull and AlphaTauri

Daniil Kvyat has slammed Alex Albon, saying he “wouldn’t expect that from a driver of his level” after the Red Bull driver took off his front wing at the Eifel GP.

Racing for position as Albon recovered from an early pit stop, the Thai-British driver went to pass Kvyat but instead hit him.

Misjudging his position on the track, Albon pulled back onto the racing line too early and took off Kvyat’s front wing.

It could not have happened at a worse place for the AlphaTauri driver who had to complete almost a full lap before being able to pit for repairs.

Kvyat’s Sunday afternoon was ruined and he was last of the finishers, down in 15th place.

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“Well, I didn’t understand his manoeuvre, really, what he was doing,” said the frustrated Russian driver.

“I think it was quite unprofessional of him and very poor judgement.

“Wouldn’t expect that from a driver of his level – you know, he’s been racing for so long.

“Anyway, the race was pretty much ruined from there on.

“I had to do the whole lap very slow, with the damaged front wing, front wing as a consequence went under the floor, damaged my whole floor, and brake cooling.

“The race from there was really a struggle because it was massively down on downforce – it was just hoping for rain or something strange to happen.”

Albon, who complained that the AlphaTauri drivers race him “too hard” was also given a 10-second time penalty and two penalty points on his superlicence.

He would later retire from the grand prix after debris punctured his radiator.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the race, he admitted that the incident with Kvyat was “a bit of a misjudgement on my side.

“Obviously, on a track like this with track temperature like this, that [a lock-up] is the worst thing to do.

“The pace in the car is good so it’s annoying to have a result like this now, but to be honest on my side I wasn’t really too happy with my race.

“A few mistakes and obviously the lock-up compromised my race.”

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