Daniil Kvyat felt the move from Alexander Albon was unprofessional in F1 Eifel GP as the Thai racer took it as an mis-judgement on his side.
Though they are members of sister teams, AlphaTauri’s Kvyat, and Red Bull’s Albon did not play nice on track while racing each other in F1 Eifel GP at Nurburging, nor did they off of it, as the former was highly critical of the maneuvers made by his adversary.
The Russian was left frustrated after he ran wide at Turn 14 and took the the escape road on re-start, his subsequent rejoining of the track only resulting in the loss of his front wing as Albon dove across the front end of his AlphaTauri in a haphazardly-executed overtake.
Kvyat, at the very end of his lap and therefore past the pit lane entry, was forced to circulate once more before changing his front wing, losing oodles of time in the process. “I didn’t understand his manoeuvre really,” he began to explain to TV media.
“What was he doing? I think it was quite unprofessional of him and poor judgement, so you wouldn’t expect that from a driver of his level, who’s been racing so long,” Kvyat said, before detailing the extent of the damage caused by the incident.
“My race was pretty much ruined from then on. I had to do the whole lap very slow with the damaged front wing as a consequence. It went under my floor, damaged my whole floor, the brake cooling, and the race from there was really a struggle because the car was massively down on downforce, and I was just really hoping for rain or something really strange to happen,” summed up Kvyat, who ended up 15th.
As a reprimand, Albon was handed a five-second time penalty and given two penalty points too, though he was barred from serving this after a mechanical DNF – the result of a stone which had pierced a radiator – spelled the end of his race.
“I don’t really know what happened with Daniil and I need to watch it back,” said a dejected Albon. “He ran a little wide into the chicane when we did the re-start and it was a bit of misjudgment from my side. After that, the team saw the temperatures rising [at some stage] and I was asked to box and then retire the car.
“It initially looked like a power unit issue from the data but the Team investigated and found that some debris had pierced the radiator system which led to the rising temperatures. But anyhow, the lock-up in Turn 1, just compromised the race really. It is a bit of a shame, the car was quick.
“With Valtteri having his issue, we could have done something. The first stint, I was pretty slow with the flat spots. I am sure there was pace in the car there,” summed up Albon, who tried to fight back from the early stop but continued to lock-up in his battles. He did it again while fighting Pierre Gasly, before he was called in to retire.
Here’s the video of the clash between Kvyat and Albon: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2020/10/2020_Eifel_Grand_Prix__Albon_rips_off_Kvyat_s_front_wing.html
Here’s the troubles for Albon: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2020/10/2020_Eifel_Grand_Prix__Albon_complains_after_Gasly_battle.html
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