Albon admits he was “being a bit greedy” when he crashed

Alexander Albon owned up to causing the crash which ruled him out of qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix by being “a bit keen with the right foot”.

The Toro Rosso driver smashed his STR14 heavily against a barrier at the end of final practice when he lost control of his car at the exit of the final corner.

He admitted he was particularly frustrated by the mistake because the team had been competitive up until that point.

“I think we showed a bit of our pace in FP3 which is what makes it more frustrating because I think we deserved to be fighting there in Q3,” said Albon in response to a question from RaceFans.

He described how he lost control of his car on the Astroturf at the exit of turn 16.

“That area of the track, there is lap time there, you can run a bit wide, it just helps you bring that entry speed into the corner. And it’s something I’ve been doing on the last run before and the day before as well.

“So the line was fine, just a bit too much throttle on the Astro. You always get one snap, it’s quite normal when you get on the Astro over there. But it snapped and then it snapped the other way. Once you get a tank-slapper you’re kind of a passenger and I was hoping it would snap left to kind of spin me onto the circuit but it went right into the wall.”

Albon said he would try to handle the same situation differently next time. “If I did it differently I would just obviously have backed off once I realised at that point I was losing the car, I’d’ve released the throttle and not finished the lap, just bring it back on track. It’s hard to say now because it’s not that easy to do but it was maybe being a bit greedy.”

Toro Rosso will replace Albon’s survival cell ahead of tomorrow’s race, which means his car will have to pass scrutineering again. The stewards have confirmed that both he and Antonio Giovinazzi, who also did not set a time in the first part of qualifying, will be permitted to start despite not having lapped within 107% of the quickest time in Q1.

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