Colapinto blames ‘stupid’ rivals for first lap crash as Albon admits Magnussen collision was his fault

Williams had a race to forget in Qatar as Franco Colapinto suffered an instant DNF after being hit into the opening corner, while Alex Albon’s race was also immediately compromised by a first lap spin as he wound up propping up the field in P15.

Colapinto was hit by Esteban Ocon’s Alpine which in turn had been tagged by Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas. Colapinto had already swerved wide to try and avoid the incident, but still suffered another collision to add to his team’s woes.

Williams have suffered more than most with crashes this season, and Colapinto was already running some older spec parts after hitting the barriers in qualifying in Las Vegas.

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“I tried to open as much as I could to the left because I saw the guys on the inside going wide, but they just drove straight into me, first into Ocon and then Ocon into me,” the Argentine explained.

“It’s a pity because starting from P19 or P18 you don’t have much to [play for] so you take all that risk for nothing, the guys on the inside were a bit stupid. But it’s racing, hopefully we can try and fix the car for next weekend.”

The damage bill has been a big concern for Williams all season, with spare parts also an issue. It remains to be seen what spec parts Colapinto will be able to run in the season closer in Abu Dhabi next weekend.

“We need to see first what got broken, of course that for me it’s quite important to finish the year on a high and try to have a clean weekend in Abu Dhabi,” he said.

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As for Albon, his race was compromised when Lance Stroll tagged his car into a spin on the opening lap. That dropped him down the order – but worse was to follow.

Williams gambled on the soft tyre for Albon when they pitted him under the Safety Car – the only team at that point to do so – which did briefly lift him into the top 10. But as the tyre lost grip, Albon found himself going backwards and even managed to make contact with Kevin Magnussen’s Haas – which earned him a 10-second time penalty.

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“We were kind of in no man’s land that whole race, kind of at the back, just struggling with pace to be honest with you,” a dispirited Albon said afterwards.

“That Safety Car made it interesting, we took a gamble, went for the softs. We knew that basically on every restart, Lap 1 was the only lap I was going to make an overtake and I went for it into Turn 1 a couple of times.

“Kevin’s one, honestly we were very slow into Turn 1 compared to everyone else. When they were on the outside, I don’t really have the grip. My fault, lost control, that was it really – from then on, we were just struggling.”