Alexander Albon’s Lap 1 move on Kevin Magnussen during the British Grand Prix which resulted in the Haas driver retiring, was ‘poorly judged’, according to the Danish driver.
Albon started down in 12th for the race but fell backwards at the start as Magnussen made up a couple of positions having started 16th. Magnussen was ahead of Albon as they approached the final corner on the opening lap when he made a small mistake, allowing Albon to close up.
The Red Bull driver attempted to pass on the inside but the gap disappeared and Magnussen was sent spinning into the wall after his right-rear contacted Albon’s front-left.
Magnussen believes Albon could easily have waited just a couple more corners and he would have got past easily given the performance of the Haas and the Red Bull.
“By the time I saw him, it was way too late for me to really give him any room,” explained Magnussen.
“I think it would have been very easy for him to wait. He had a way faster car, he would have easily got past me anyway.
“I don’t think he would have had a very difficult time if he had not taken that huge risk right there. He would have probably done it the next corner even.
“Clearly it wasn’t any bad intentions from him, just I think poorly judged.”
The move earned Albon a five-second drive-through penalty and dropped him to the back of the back from where he managed to recover to eighth place.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said he was surprised by the penalty in what he deemed a ‘racing incident’.
“That was a racing incident,” Horner added. “If you look at it from the beginning, Kevin made a mistake, he got out wide, Alex put his nose in there and then he sort of backed out a little bit.
“It was one of those things. I wasn’t too surprised with the penalty, it could have gone either way.”
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