Albon frustrated but Hamilton considers clash a 'racing incident'

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Unsurprisingly, Alex Albon and Lewis Hamilton had differing views on their clash while fighting for second at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Having pitted for soft tyres under the second safety car period, the Thai driver went for a bold pass around the outside of Turn 4 on the world champion using his significant grip advantage.

But just like in Brazil last year, the Mercedes would make contact with the right-rear, spinning Albon into the gravel trap and denying him a likely first F1 win.

"I'm a little stressed right now, so I have to be careful what I say. It is what it is," he told Sky Sports. 

"I really feel like we could win this race. Mercedes had the speed today, but the team did a great strategy.

"When we made the last pit stop I didn't really know where we were, but when I saw how we were doing it looked really good."

On the incident, Albon admits he thought he had the job done before the contact, but saw this incident to that at Interlagos.

"I wanted to catch up in the first five corners after the Safety Car. I was confident and the car felt good in that part of the race," he explained.

"It's a tricky situation because I felt like I had already made the action. I was already focusing on Bottas for me.

"Brazil was 50/50, but here I didn't have that feeling. You always have a risk with overtaking outside, but I gave as much space as possible. I was already on the edge."

Albon's race soon got worse as he retired with engine issues, meanwhile, Hamilton was soon given a five-second penalty by the stewards for the incident, dropping him down to fourth in the final standings.

“It was a really unfortunate situation with Alex, I can’t believe we’ve come together again but it really felt like a racing incident," he said.

“Either way, I’ll take whatever penalty they feel I deserve and move forwards.”

 

         

 

 

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