FIA confirms Monaco Grand Prix punishment after Albon, Lindblad incident

Williams received a €5,000 and a formal warning after Alex Albon blocked Arvid Lindblad in the pits in Monaco, preventing the Racing Bulls driver from reaching his pit box.

Lindblad eventually swerved around Albon and the Williams mechanics to stop in his box.

Williams fined over Alex Albon-Arvid Lindblad Monaco pit lane incident

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Albon and Lindblad both progressed to Q2 in qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix, along with Albon’s teammate Carlos Sainz.

The Spaniard pulled into the pits for fresh tyres, and was being serviced by his mechanics when Albon came in behind him. The Thai-British racer had to queue behind his teammate.

That caused problems for Lindblad as the Racing Bulls driver wasn’t able to pull into his pit box as Albon was blocking his path.

Lindblad had to work his way around Albon’s car as well as a Williams mechanic, and almost ran over the foot of one of them.

The stewards took a dim view on Williams’ antics and hit the team with a €5,000 fine for obstructing Lindblad. Williams also received a formal warning.

The verdict read: “The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 23 (Alexander Albon), the driver of Car 41 (Arvid Lindblad), team representatives, the FIA Single Seater Department Sporting Director and reviewed positioning/marshalling system data, video, team radio and in car video evidence.

“Car 55 was already stopped in front of the Williams Team garage area as Car 23 approached. Car 23 drove around Car 55 and in doing so prevented, for a short time, Car 41 from entering its pit stop position.

“In doing so, Car 41 narrowly missed running over the foot of one of the mechanics attending to Car 23.

“The Williams Team admitted that it could have handled the situation differently and hence a formal warning is issued for that, and more importantly, a fine is imposed for the potential safety issue.”

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The punishment has no effect on the grid, with Albon set to line up P11 ahead of Sainz, while Lindblad is 15th on the grid.

Although P11 marked Albon’s best qualifying performance of the season, the Williams driver says it wasn’t a bittersweet moment as he didn’t expect to be so close to progressing to Q3.

He missed out on a first Q3 berth in F1 2026 by 0.025s to Pierre Gasly.

“No, no,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media in Monaco.

“Honestly, I was really on the back foot in qualifying. I felt like I couldn’t get a tyre to work at all, and it felt like a Hail Mary for that.

“Just like, ‘okay, if I hit a wall, I hit a wall’.

“I survived 15 corners. I think that’s what inevitably costs me Q3. I just hit the right side of the chicane, just got me out of position for that side, so I lost a good tenth in being out of position for the two corners.

“But I kind of also want to understand why it felt so difficult in qualifying

“I’m feeling quite good with the car all weekend, and it went away from me in qualifying, so happy with the P11 in many ways.

“It doesn’t look as sweet, because I felt like I wasn’t even in the fight for Q throughout the session, so I’m happy, I’m happy where it is.

“I think it’s been like the most normal full of fighting session I’ve had in a long, long time.”

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