Albon was ‘caught out’ by T14 tailwind in qualifying crash

Red Bull Formula 1 driver Alexander Albon concedes a strong tailwind at Turn 14 caught him by surprise as he crashed out of Russian Grand Prix qualifying.

The British-born Thai driver was looking set to improve on his 18th-fastest lap time in Q1 when he lost control of his RB15 under braking at Turn 14 and spun rearwards into the barriers.

Albon, who is set to be hit with a five-place grid penalty for taking on a new Honda engine this weekend in Sochi, was subsequently knocked out of the first segment of qualifying.

Albon said he simply carried too much speed into the corner in a bid to extract more laptime from his car.

“There’s nothing really to say other than I just went in a bit hot,” Albon admitted.

“When these cars go, they go quite quick. So it’s just frustrating.

“There is a tail wind there, and it just caught me out really.”

Albon has struggled throughout the weekend so far and been unable to match the sort of pace demonstrated by his teammate Max Verstappen, who set a lap good enough for the fifth fastest time. The Dutchman will also drop down the order to 10th due to his own engine-related penalty.

When asked what he thinks will be the key to turning around his weekend, Albon replied: “Race pace we did a bit in FP3, it didn’t go too badly.

“We are making ourselves a little bit difficult a target to start the race with. But we will see.”

Albon is expected to start Sunday's Russian Grand Prix from 19th on the grid, ahead of Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat.