Ricciardo was making an attempt to keep away from the Aston Martin automobile of Lance Stroll on the race begin, and Albon tried to make it three-wide on the run into Flip Three.
Not realizing that the Williams driver was on his exterior, Ricciardo jolted to the fitting, sending each himself and Albon into the surface tyre barrier with what Sky Sports activities F1‘s Anthony Davidson described as a “nasty crash”.
Providing his evaluation of the incident, Davidson mentioned: “I feel Ricciardo reacts to Stroll on his lefthand aspect. That is unlucky. It wasn’t Albon’s fault and it wasn’t Ricciardo’s.
“Ricciardo goes for the racing line and three into one does not actually go. It is a racing incident and incorrect place, incorrect time for Albon.”
Including additional perception, former Aston Martin strategist Bernie Collins added: “Ricciardo was trying to his left and extra involved a couple of automobile coming as much as his left, in order that’s why he wasn’t conscious of Albon.”
This crash was nothing wanting a catastrophe for each drivers, however significantly for the Williams group, who now face a prolonged restore job forward of a Chinese language Grand Prix for which they’ll as soon as once more be with out a spare chassis.
The Grove-based group have been compelled to discipline only a single automobile in Melbourne two weeks in the past after Albon crashed closely throughout FP1. In the end, Logan Sargeant was sacrificed to permit the Thai-British driver to race.
For Ricciardo, this represents a serious missed alternative to get one over on his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, who has outshone the favored Aussie constantly in 2024.
The 34-year-old entered the marketing campaign hoping to place his title on the forefront of the Pink Bull second-seat debate however is now extra targeted on preserving maintain of his seat with VCARB.
