Albon a 'passenger' as Sainz collision ends 'fun'

Alex Albon noted that he was a complete "passenger" during his unfortunate incident with Carlos Sainz, which ended his hopes of scoring points in the Canadian Grand Prix. 

The Williams driver demonstrated impressive pace in both wet and dry conditions, with an appearance in Q3 last Saturday having been well deserved. 

Albon was around the bottom of the points for the majority of the race and looked destined for a top 10 finish, until lap 54 when he was taken out by Sainz. 

Sainz span ahead of him at Turn 6, with his car having rolled across the circuit, clipping Albon's right rear as he went past, sending the Williams driver into the barrier and out of the race. 

It was a hugely unfortunate blow for the Thai-British driver, who was enjoying himself in the mixed conditions.

"I was enjoying it out there, them kind of race conditions there is a lot to play for, I was having a lot of fun, said Albon. 

"And then two laps in a row, two drivers went off at the same corner. The first one I lost a position as I had to avoid the crash, then the lap after Carlos obviously had his spin. 

"I was kind of expecting him to stop, but the way it rolled around, when I made my initial move left I thought it was fine I've got a position. And then as I saw him coming and rolling around me, I thought okay, he's going to clip my rear right.

"Bit of a passenger, frustrating as points were available today."

Not gambling

The big frustration for Albon was that unlike some teams around them, Williams opted against a risky strategy. 

Williams read the conditions and changed its tyres accordingly, with avoiding any risks having worked in its favour until the unfortunate incident with Sainz. 

As pointed out by Albon, Williams simply opted to do what worked best for them, rather than focusing on the sides around them.

"Yeah, frustrating honestly," said Albon. " I think when I look at the race as a whole, it seemed like we didn't take much risk with the strategy.

"We were making good calls the whole time, if you look at Haas they did a good gamble on the wets at the beginning of the race. 

"You look at some of the guys who stayed out on the inter not pitting for a new one in the middle of the race, we kind of just did what felt right for us and even if it didn't work out sometimes we kept fighting back into the points."