Russell and Albon share hilarious exchange: 'That's better than Carlos' poop'

Alex Albon and George Russell shared a hilarious exchange following Friday practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix during which the Williams driver almost crashed into his rookie team-mate.

In FP1 at the Bahrain International Circuit, Albon was joined on track by reserve Luke Browning. At one stage, with the young Briton on an out lap and Albon on a cool-down lap, the latter made a move through the high-speed Turn 13 that forced Browning to take evasive action.

A stewards' investigation found Albon guilty of unnecessarily impeding and fined him €7,500. The stewards felt "the situation could have been quite serious in view of the high-speed delta".

In the post-practice TV pen, Albon had just started to be interviewed by F1TV when Russell, to his right and conducting a different interview, intervened by saying, "Why don't you tell them about crashing into your team-mate, mate!"

Laughing, Albon replied: "Just got to be alpha dog. Show them who's boss. Got to show them who's the number one."

After calming down and returning to the interview, Albon was eventually asked about the incident with Browning.

Again, Russell stepped in. "Did you get a penalty for that?" asked the Mercedes driver.

Albon initially replied, "No", only to be told he had been fined €7,500. Starting to laugh again, he added: "I'm not paying that though. That wasn't my fault."

With Russell also now laughing, the British driver said: "So that [the fine] is better than Carlos' poop!"

That was referencing the fact Albon's Williams team-mate Carlos Sainz was fined €10,000 after being later for the national anthem ceremony ahead of last Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix.

A giggling Albon then said: "Would you rather take a **** or take out your team-mate?" After a pause, answering his own question, he said: "Take out your team-mate!"

Quick as a flash, Russell chipped in. "It's cheaper!"

Finally asked again about the incident with Browning, Albon said: "It most likely scared the rookie daylights out of him."

Explaining, he added: "A little bit of a miscommunication. I didn't hear him coming on the radio. It's no one's fault. We were in the middle of very busy run plans, so was Luke, and one of those things, quite luckily. He did a good job to miss me, to be honest."