Kvyat hits out at “unprofessional” Albon after collision in F1 Eifel GP

Daniil Kvyat has labelled Alex Albon “unprofessional” after the pair came together during Formula 1’s Eifel Grand Prix.

Albon and Kvyat made contract at the final corner after an intense scrap over 10th place, with Kvyat initially running wide at the last chicane. The AlphaTauri driver cut across the grass before re-joining ahead of Albon, whose Red Bull clipped Kvyat as he swept past.

The contact removed Kvyat’s front wing and forced him into an unscheduled stop having completed a full lap without the wing attached to his AT01 after passing the pit lane. The incident ruined Kvyat’s race as he ultimately crossed the line 15th and last.

“I didn’t understand his manoeuvre really,” Kvyat said.

“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.

“But anyway, the 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.”

Albon was given a five-second time penalty but did not take his punishment after retiring from the race with a punctured radiator.

The Thai racer also received two penalty points on his licence for the collision and he admitted the contact came after a misjudgement on his behalf.

“Obviously Dany ran a bit wide in the chicane and it was a bit of a misjudgement on my side,” Albon explained. “I don’t really know [what happened] but we went into the last corner and we touched.

“The pace in the car is good,” added Albon, who’d qualified an encouraging P5, “so it’s annoying to have a result like this now. But to be honest, on my side, I wasn’t really too happy with my race, just a few mistakes, and obviously the lock-up [on Lap 1] compromised us a lot.”