Albon fumes at Alonso’s ‘ridiculous’ Q1 tactics

Alex Albon said Fernando Alonso “needs to get penalised” after he accused the Alpine driver of driving slowly at the end of Q1.

Following Lance Stroll’s crash late on in the first session, Albon was one of a number of drivers desperate to get out and over the start line before the final 2:30 run time finished.

But, his way was blocked with other teams and drivers, who were safely into Q2 if results stayed the same, went out ahead and could dictate the pace of the pack.

One of the most guilty culprits of this was Alonso who backed up the grid, similar to how he did during the race in Monaco, before going off at the run-off area at Turn 15 when he did not appear to need to do so.

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Albon, who was eliminated as a result of the yellow flag caused by the Spaniard, went onto his team radio to angrily accuse Alonso of doing so on purpose and encouraged the stewards to penalise the 40-year-old.

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“He needs to get penalised, this guy [Alonso], he has to.” Albon said. “This is ridiculous. He was doing it the whole lap. He was driving slowly on purpose and then it was so obvious how he went off the track it was ridiculous.

“He braked so early and then he just went off the circuit.”

At the time of writing, the stewards have not said they are investigating Alonso.

As a result of his early exit, Albon will line up 17th on Sunday’s grid which is actually his fourth-best qualifying