Alex Albon buys George Russell dinner to put heated clash behind them

Alex Albon bought George Russell dinner as a peace offering following their heated on-track clash at the F1 Monaco Grand Prix.

With F1 implementing a new mandatory two-stop strategy at Monaco, several teams relied on controversial manipulation tactics to try and minimise the loss of having to visit the pits for a second time.

In an ultimately successful bid to claim a double points finish, Williams ordered Carlos Sainz and Albon to take turns in backing off to create a large enough gap to ensure neither driver lost track position when they made their second stop.

This proved especially frustrating for Russell, who ended up stuck behind Albon’s Williams for much of the race and complained the Anglo Thai was driving “erratically” to retain track position.

Russell ended up deliberately cutting the chicane to get past Albon despite knowing he would cop a penalty as a result.

Albon and Sainz went on to finish ninth and 10th, while Russell missed out on points in 11th.

"I'm having dinner with him tonight, so he would definitely get the bill,” Russell proclaimed afterwards.

Explaining Williams’ tactics, Albon said: "We knew it was a possibility. We knew the strategy could happen. I think we were talking about it on Thursday.

"We didn't want it to happen, and I think on our side, it wasn't how we were going to go racing. Once RB started it, it basically it put us in a position where we had to do it as well.

"It bunched the field up so tightly, the only way to get out of that situation was to basically repeat what they did. Not pretty and and frustrating, but in the end it's a team sport and we maximised three points for the team.”

Russell and Albon put their on-track duel behind them by having a dinner date later on Sunday evening.

Albon revealed he had paid the bill in a post on social media in which he shared a photograph of the pair smiling together.

“You’re welcome George Russell,” Albon simply captioned the post. 

Williams boss apologises to Mercedes 

Williams team principal James Vowles sent a mid-race text to Mercedes counterpart Toto Wolff in which he apologised for his team's tactics. 

Wolff revealed Vowles' text read: ‘I'm sorry. We had no choice given what happened ahead’. Wolff replied saying 'we know'. 

"You know, James is one of my guys, and I don't want to sound patronising, because he's making a career as a team principal, and he's doing really well," Wolff added. 

"He had to do it, you know, he's [got] two cars in the points. I think what started it was these RBs that backed us back off, and that's what he had to do."