Alex Albon reflects on pretty bizarre brake issue that ruined his qualifying

Williams driver Alex Albon has offered his thoughts on the brake system issue that left him out of qualifying at the first hurdle.

The Thai/British driver ran over some smoking debris in Q1 at Imola on Friday afternoon, with that setting one of his rear brakes on fire.

Indeed, it was a rather dramatic-looking incident and it now leaves Albon with a fight on, though he can at least see the positives with Sprint giving him an extra chance to try and climb the field before the Grand Prix on Sunday.

Speaking after qualifying, Albon explained:

“Unfortunately, we suffered a brake system issue which ended Qualifying early for us.

“These things happen, and we’ll go away and investigate tonight so we understand what went wrong and how we resolve it. Thankfully, tomorrow’s Sprint event should offer us some opportunities to improve our position on Sunday’s starting grid.”

Albon achieved a 10th place finish last time out at the Australian Grand Prix after a clever strategy that saw him pit on the penultimate lap, and some equally clever thinking this time around might be needed if he is to repeat such a result.