'Quality very low': Alonso hits out at Albon after Austin collision
Fernando Alonso has criticised Alex Albon after the United States Grand Prix. After contact on the opening lap the Spaniard drove with half a floor – and questioned the standard at the back of the field.
Archive image · Photo: Liauzh / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0 (cropped and resized)
A row has broken out between Fernando Alonso and Alex Albon after the United States Grand Prix. On the opening lap Albon tried to pass Alonso for 12th place into the Turn 11 hairpin and went into the side of the Aston Martin, Sky Sports reported. Both cars were damaged and the stewards issued no penalty. Alonso finished 16th, Albon 17th in the Williams.
"Albon forgot that corner 11 was there and he had to turn left," the 45-year-old Spaniard said, according to ESPN. "I think the quality of the drivers in the lower third of the grid is very low, as we saw today with Alex." His car was "destroyed", he said: "Half of the floor is not there." He estimated he lost half a second or more per lap and said points would otherwise have been "a strong possibility".
Albon saw it differently. He said there had been another car on Fernando's right and that Alonso left space as if there were only one car on his inside. "So then I think it pinched and I tried to get out of the way and get on the kerb," the Williams driver told ESPN, adding that he too drove the race with a broken wing.