Alexander Albon accepted responsibility for his collision with Franco Colapinto after the stewards handed him a 10-second time penalty.
The pair collided on the 16th lap of the race at turn five. Albon had attempted to get ahead of Colapinto by pitting the lap before him, but the Alpine driver rejoined the track in front of the Williams driver after making his own pit stop.
Albon tried to pass Colapinto on the inside at turn five but hit his rival, knocking him into a spin. The stewards ruled he was entirely to blame.
“Entering turn five car 23 [Albon] attempted to overtake car 43 [Colapinto] on the inside,” the stewards noted. “However [he] did not have his front axle level with the mirror of car 43, car 43 was in control and taking the normal racing line, therefore car 23 did not have the right to the corner and accordingly was wholly responsible for the collision.”
In addition to his time penalty, the stewards also added two penalty points to Albon’s licence. He is now on a total of four and none will be deducted until the beginning of December.
Albon accepted the stewards’ decision. “I obviously made contact with Franco [which was] not ideal,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “I’ll hold my hand up.”
Colapinto said the contact made a bad race worse. “It was a tough day,” he said. “We didn’t really have any pace today.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“We just really struggled with the car, with the pace and we need to keep working to get better. Of course, I lost a lot of time with the contact with Alex: 12 seconds I think, and then a broken front wing that gave me a lot understeer, a flat spot, so it was tough.”
Penalty box
Did the stewards issue the correct penalty for the collision between Albon and Colapinto? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.
Loading …A RaceFans account is required in order to vote. If you do not have one, register an account here or read more about registering here. When this poll is closed the result will be displayed instead of the voting form.
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories – and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
