26/05/2025 09:50
Alex Albon has applauded George Russell for a move during the
Monaco Grand Prix he felt was "obvious" and that forced the FIA
stewards to hand out a severe punishment. Mercedes driver Russell
grew increasingly frustrated behind Williams rival Albon, who drove
deliberately slowly to allow team-mate Carlos Sainz ahead of him to
bridge a gap that would ensure he would not be undercut during a
pit-stop phase. Russell's frustration eventually boiled over as he
'overtook' Russell by cutting across the Nouvelle Chicane. That
allowed Russell to start pulling away, seemingly in the hope he
would be given a mandatory 10-second penalty for leaving the track
and gaining a lasting advantage, with his pace in clear air
offsetting the potential punishment. The stewards, however, took a
dim view of Russell's actions, handing him a drive-through penalty.
Asked if the penalty was fair, speaking to media, including
RacingNews365 , Albon said: "Yeah, because if that doesn't happen,
you're going to see chaos. "It was good that they made it harsh
because it would open huge loopholes in the future if we started
not to punish it, so I think it was correct." As to whether he was
amazed by the gall shown by Russell to attempt such a manoeuvre,
Albon said: "George is cheeky. When you're in the car with him on
the road, he does some cheeky moves, and he did it on the racetrack
as well. "I knew exactly what he was doing, and it was a bit too
obvious to get away with. But I applaud the effort. He had to do
something to get points. He did make us worry for a couple of laps
before the drive-through came through." Albon drove 'erratically'
Explaining their decision behind the drive-through penalty, the
stewards said the drivers had been warned a move such as Russell's
would be treated severely. A stewards' statement read:
"It was clear from the radio message where he said that he would 'take the penalty'
that the overtake was
done deliberately as he felt that he was being held up by car 23
[Albon] driving erratically.
"Anticipating that situations such as this might happen at this Monaco Grand Prix, all
the teams were informed before the race by the
race director (at the stewards'
request) that the stewards would look carefully at a deliberate leaving of the track at
Turn 10 to over a car or a train of slow cars.
"That communication also made it
clear that the guideline penalty of 10 seconds may be insufficient for this deliberate
infringement
and that the penalty applied may be a greater penalty than 10 seconds.
"We therefore considered that car 63's deliberate infringement warranted a drive-through penalty and we so imposed."
