Albon accepts blame for "silly mistake" in FP2 crash
F1 News
Alex Albon has accepted his crash during FP2 was a "silly mistake" on his part after seeing his session ended early after sliding out at turn seven and hitting the wall. Albon has been mostly impressive since joining Red Bull Racing, outscoring Max Verstappen in his five races with the team, but practice/qualifying crashes are perhaps becoming a worry, with the Thai driver also crashing out in the early stages of qualifying in Russia.
Albon is still an F1 rookie, and took his best ever F1 finish last time out with fourth place in Japan in just his fifth race since replacing Pierre Gasly during the summer break.
However, the Mexican Grand Prix weekend didn't get off the the best of starts on Friday, with a frustrating crash, but the 23-year old is staying positive.
Albon said: “This is my first time driving at this circuit and I’m enjoying it. I think it’s a good track and the stadium section is cool, but obviously today has not been the best day. FP1 was ok. The car felt good straightaway and I was happy with the balance, but in FP2 I just went a bit wide on the kerbs and lost the rear.
"Once these cars snap, they snap quickly and that was that. It was a silly mistake and I paid the price. We missed a good chunk of running so we’ll need to make that back up tomorrow but we’ll be ready for FP3 and that’s the main thing.
"Max showed the car is quick in the long runs and now it’s just about fine tuning for qualifying where we expect the Ferraris to be very strong. FP3 will be about rebuilding confidence and getting back into a rhythm but the conditions might be different with rain which could make things interesting.”