Alexander Albon is frustrated with stewards’ decision to give him a five-second time penalty during the Sprint at the Red Bull Ring.
Albon fought with Lando Norris for P11 during the race. Norris tried to pass the Williams driver at turn 3, but was forced to go off the track, which allowed Albon to stay in front.
Stewards investigated the episode and decided to hand Albon a five-second time penalty. He was 13th at the finish, but dropped down to P16 because of the penalty. After the Sprint, Albon shared his view of the incident.
“I’ll let you make what you saw of it but, for me, I was pretty much in front going on the brakes. So I braked where I can brake and unfortunately we are quite sensitive on the aero, especially on the front, and when a car goes late on you around the outside, that’s it,” he said.
“I would have easily made the corner if I was in front, but just the way how much later he [Norris] braked, I caught the dirty air almost in the middle of the overtake. You saw we were struggling out there today. We didn’t have much grip, so understeered wide, but there was no attempt to push him wide, it was just the limitation of what we have. It is hard for us to battle around other cars and that’s the simple fact of it, I think.
“Obviously, I’m going to say it’s an unfair penalty because I’m not that kind of driver. I’m not trying to force anyone off the circuit.”
