Alexander Albon quipped that he felt as if he had “fire on my face” in the wake of a dramatic start to Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix.
Albon lost ground at the start and in front of him, Lance Stroll collided with Romain Grosjean, causing damage to the Racing Point that resulted in a sea of sparks being sent from the RP19.
“I played a bit too safe as around me there were some people braking early and I kind of reacted to it and braked with them so I was too safe going into Turn 1,” he said.
“Exiting Turn 3 I had a Racing Point throwing like fire into my face and that kind of distracted me. I pulled out, then he braked and I was thinking “has he had damage? What’s going on?”, that kind of thing and I was a bit flustered.
“When Stroll had all those sparks flying and I was right behind him it was really hot and I could feel it the heat.
“I thought, “I have to get out of this”, but I was also trying to avoid him and the flames!”
Albon eventually made progress through the race and profited from Renault’s late drama to move into ninth place, collecting his first Formula 1 points.
“It was a good race, we got lucky with the two Renault stopping, but I’ll take it,” he said.
“It was fun as I felt the whole race we were fighting with someone – [Kevin] Magnussen, [Kimi] Raikkonen or Pierre [Gasly] or whoever – so it was a good experience. It was nice.
“I’m surprised that in Formula 1 you do your own race – everybody is pitting, exiting the pits, and you don’t really know who you’re fighting.
“It seems like you just finish the race and you go “great, just great!” That’s Formula 1, I think.”
