11/04/2025 20:40
Alex Albon and George Russell shared a hilarious exchange following
Friday practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix during which the
Williams driver almost crashed into his rookie team-mate. In FP1 at
the Bahrain International Circuit, Albon was joined on track by
reserve Luke Browning. At one stage, with the young Briton on an
out lap and Albon on a cool-down lap, the latter made a move
through the high-speed Turn 13 that forced Browning to take evasive
action. A stewards' investigation found Albon guilty of
unnecessarily impeding and fined him €7,500. The stewards felt "the
situation could have been quite serious in view of the high-speed
delta". In the post-practice TV pen, Albon had just started to be
interviewed by F1TV when Russell, to his right and conducting a
different interview, intervened by saying, "Why don't you tell them
about crashing into your team-mate, mate!" Laughing, Albon replied:
"Just got to be alpha dog. Show them who's boss. Got to show them
who's the number one." After calming down and returning to the
interview, Albon was eventually asked about the incident with
Browning. Again, Russell stepped in. "Did you get a penalty for
that?" asked the Mercedes driver. Albon initially replied, "No",
only to be told he had been fined €7,500. Starting to laugh again,
he added: "I'm not paying that though. That wasn't my fault." With
Russell also now laughing, the British driver said: "So that [the
fine] is better than Carlos' poop!" That was referencing the fact
Albon's Williams team-mate Carlos Sainz was fined €10,000 after
being later for the national anthem ceremony ahead of last Sunday's
Japanese Grand Prix. A giggling Albon then said: "Would you rather
take a **** or take out your team-mate?" After a pause, answering
his own question, he said: "Take out your team-mate!" Quick as a
flash, Russell chipped in. "It's cheaper!" Finally asked again
about the incident with Browning, Albon said: "It most likely
scared the rookie daylights out of him." Explaining, he added: "A
little bit of a miscommunication. I didn't hear him coming on the
radio. It's no one's fault. We were in the middle of very busy run
plans, so was Luke, and one of those things, quite luckily. He did
a good job to miss me, to be honest."
