Alex Albon blamed a slow Lewis Hamilton after he lost out on a podium chance at the German Grand Prix.
The Toro Rosso driver was running fourth after Nico Hulkenberg had crashed with Max Verstappen and the two Mercedes’ ahead of him.
Rather than watching the faster cars pull away, however, he was having to go wheel-to-wheel with Hamilton into the hairpin after the restart before another small error later in the lap cost him three positions.
“We were running in the top five and I thought this really is our pace – we were not losing out to the guys in front, and the guys behind were dropping back. So I was really happy with how it was going, and I thought three-quarters through the race as long as we just finish where we are, we are sorted,” Albon explained to Crash.net post-race.
“Unfortunately, there was a restart. I got caught with Lewis. It was the last thing what I expected. I did not want to overtake him, but I was forced into the position so I had to try it. We lost a bit of ground.”
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As teammate Daniil Kvyat moved up to an eventual third place finish, the Thai racer was also caught out by a late call to change to slicks.
“The guys on the slick tires undercut us quite severely,” he continued.
“When they came out, they were already five seconds ahead of us, so it was more of the fact that we didn’t pit for the dry tyres. We stayed out when the other guys pitted.
“It is one of those things, there is no one to blame. The guys at the back knew that they could risk it, and it worked.”
Still, a sixth place finish represented Albon’s best result in F1, although there was more late drama after a collision with Pierre Gasly, which took the Frenchman out of the race.
“He had a good run on me coming out of the hairpin, I went to defend and it was one of those things where I jinxed to the right,” he said. “I didn’t want to go more than I did.
“But the closing speed was quite big, and we both got caught out. That is my initial feeling because I have not seen the video. I will have a look.”
