Alex Albon insists his fight with Fernando Alonso in the United States GP was "fun" and "fair" after the Aston Martin driver landed a jab at the Williams racer.
On the opening lap, at Turn 11, Albon tried to move up the inside of Alonso at the hairpin before the back straight, but clattered into the side of the two-time champion's machine, destroying the left-hand side bargeboard and aerodynamics.
Alonso would go on to finish in 16th ahead of Albon in 17th, and speaking to the media afterwards, the veteran said that: 'We need to get better and start a bit higher up because I think the bottom of the grid, the quality of the drivers is very low at the moment."
Responding to that, Albon described what had happened in the incident, for which the stewards elected to take no action against him.
"Have you ever watched the Goodwood and see the Mustang and the Mini? Well, it was the same thing as that race," Albon replied to media, including RacingNews365, referencing a clip on YouTube of a more powerful Ford Mustang (Albon) being overtaken by a better chassis in corners [Alonso].
"Well, it was the same thing. It was fun, and it is always fun to race Fernando; he's strong, but he is always fair.
"Maybe he thought I was a bit over the edge, and I don't know; I am sure I'll find out soon enough, but I had a good amount of fun.
"It felt like there was a car on the right side of Fernando, and he gave Fernando enough space as if he thought there was only one car on his inside.
"But then I was on the inside of Fernando, and so it pinched, and I tried to get out of the way on the kerb, but I couldn't.
"So I got damage and was driving around with a broken front wing."
[Article continues below].
Albon's blue flag nightmare
Turning to the rest of his race, Albon explained his hopes of initially being able to finish well clear of the Aston Martins, but he was not able to do so.
"We pitted very early on the final set, and we had a long run on the hards," he said.
"It would have been okay, but when we came out, we were just getting blue flags, so we lost maybe 10 or 12 seconds of race time on the blue flags, and then suddenly I thought Fernando, Lance [Stroll] and team-mate Carlos [Sainz] would not be in my race.
"I knew they were in my race with a few laps to go, so I tried to hold off the Astons because I knew Carlos was on a fresher set, and tried to help him have a chance on the Astons.
"But then in the end, they got through."
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