It really is unfortunate. 🫤

When asked for his view of what happened, Albon said he was trying to back off once he realised he was in Ricciardo's blind spot, but couldn't help avoiding the contact. "I had a grip advantage [on soft tyres], kind of surprised [with] the grip I had out of [Turn] 2, and was able to pull underneath him and have a good run into 3," Albon explained. "More about just trying to get him a little bit off line [at Turn] 3 and try and find a way for 4, 5, 6, 7 - to see if I could upset his line a little bit. "Obviously just one of them. He didn't see me, clearly. I tried to back out of it last minute. "There was a moment where I realised he hadn't seen me here, the way he's pulling across, so I hit the brakes and tried to get out of it.

"But I was almost too far alongside him and he still was coming across, I couldn't avoid it." With no spare car available until Miami, Williams is continuing to walk on eggshells while its pool of spare parts dwindles. "It's no secret that we are having a tough time with it at the moment with the parts we've got," Albon acknowledged. This is going to hurt us for sure."