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Alex Albon says he would “100%” attempt his round-the-outside pass on Lewis Hamilton in the Austrian Grand Prix if given the chance to do it again.
The Red Bull driver lost a shot at victory in the 2020 Formula 1 season opener when he clashed with Hamilton, who was given a five-second penalty for causing the collision at Turn 4.
The clash sparked debate about if it should have been declared a racing incident, or if Albon should have been more patient, but Albon believes he was right to attack when he did.
“100% I’d do the same thing again,” he said on Thursday ahead of the Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
“It has to be done. You can’t wait around, especially when [the Mercedes drivers] are at a disadvantage.
“There’s no waiting to be done really, because we knew the pace advantage, and it was just a matter of time until their tyres warmed up.
“So yeah, there’s no real regrets on that side. It was looking good for us and I knew we had to do the overtakes early to get the chance to get to [Valtteri] Bottas.
“I do think we could have done something special.
“I’m sure Lewis didn’t intend to make contact. It’s just bad circumstances that we’ve come together twice [in the last three races], but that’s about it.”
Albon said people who claimed he should have run wide onto the exit kerb to give Hamilton room did not understand the layout of the circuit at that point.
“The way the corner is, the exit point of where you take that corner is not where it looks like on camera, where people say there is a car width to go still.
“You don’t exit at that point, as you know Turn 4 is quite long.
“So unless I drove out to the end of the track and then turned again that’s the only way to give myself more space.”
Albon’s team-mate Max Verstappen praised him for launching the attack on Hamilton.
“Lewis didn’t intend to hit Alex of course, it’s unfortunate that it happened,” said Verstappen.
“It was a great move by Alex to go around the outside there, I think not many people do that. It was cool to see.
“The unfortunate part afterwards [is] it ruined Alex’s race. [Hamilton] got a penalty, he finished fourth, but Alex is still the one who got penalised the most by losing so many positions.”
