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Albon: 'Not much can be salvaged' from Australian GP practice crash

Alex Albon crashed heavily in FP1 in Melbourne to put his weekend in doubt.

Alex Albon believes Williams will not be able to "salvage" much from his car following his Australian Grand Prix practice crash. Albon ran wide through the left-kink of Turn 7 in Free Practice 1 in Melbourne, and had a snap of oversteer which he corrected. But the action took the FW46 off line, and he collided with the outside wall, plucking the right-front wheel from the chassis before a secondary impact on the left-hand side of the track at Turn 8 caused further engine and gearbox damage. He did not run in FP2, as boss James Vowles confirmed that the team do not have a third chassis on-site at Albert Park, meaning Logan Sargeant could be withdrawn from the weekend for his team leader. Reflecting on the costly accident, Albon revealed how he thought the initial cause of the accident would not prove that costly.

"I was exploring a little bit, went wide and had an aggressive kerb strike," Albon explained of the incident. "It lifted up the front, and I honestly didn't think anything of it at the time, I thought: 'Okay, it's fine, I'll probably just back out when the car lands', but when I did land, I bottomed out pretty badly. "When it bottomed out, it just kind of snapped me, so it is frustrating and I feel bad for everyone back at the factory and here at the track. "It just did a lot of damage, so let's see if we can get it repaired. "There is not that much that can be salvaged so we're going through and looking at where the damage is."

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