Albon ‘didn’t expect’ “slow motion” tangle with Hamilton

Alexander Albon said his collision with Lewis Hamilton during the Brazilian Grand Prix felt like it happened in “slow motion”.

Hamilton and Albon tangled while battling over second place with two laps left to run at Interlagos as the newly-crowned six-time world champion attempted a bold dive into Bico do Pato.

Albon ‘didn’t expect’ “slow motion” tangle with Hamilton

Alexander Albon said his collision with Lewis Hamilton during the Brazilian Grand Prix felt like it happened in “slow motion”.

Hamilton and Albon tangled while battling over second place with two laps left to run at Interlagos as the newly-crowned six-time world champion attempted a bold dive into Bico do Pato.

But Hamilton ran into the side of Albon’s Red Bull, sending the British-born-Thai driver into a spin that plummeted him down to 14th in the order.

Hamilton, who admitted the incident was "completely my fault", went on to finish third on track and stood on the podium but later received a five-second time penalty that dropped him to seventh.

“I need to look at it back to be honest,” Albon said.

“I felt like we came out of Turn 9 and I had some gap to Lewis. I thought 'we’re OK where we are’, and I felt like I’ll go in a little bit hot, and turn to cover him so he doesn’t get any ideas.

“And of course you see it, but once you dive there’s a blindspot, and you don’t know how far alongside you he is.

“I thought ‘OK he’s far enough back that I’ll give him some space’, but I didn’t expect it really. I had the contact, and it’s kind of that thing where you’re just waiting for it, it’s like ‘ah’ and then it goes slow motion.

“It was a shame because I think he would have overtaken me anyway, into Turn 1, obviously he had the fresh tyres and he was looking racey.”

Asked how he will pick himself up from the disappointment, Albon replied: “I’d say try to give myself positives.

“It was kind of on credit as well, it wasn’t like we lucked into it too much.

“We did with the Safety Car but the battle with the Ferraris was good fun. I felt like we deserved to be there, but it wasn’t meant to be. Next race!”

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