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Williams Formula 1 driver Alex Albon will miss the Brazilian Grand Prix as a result of his massive qualifying crash, with the team only represented by his rookie team-mate Franco Colapinto - who had a heavy shunt of his own.
The Williams drivers caused two of the five red flags that interrupted the already-postponed Sunday morning qualifying session at a very wet Interlagos.
Albon's occurred in Q3, at a point when he provisionally held a front-row place.
🔴 RED FLAG No. 5!!! 🔴
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 3, 2024
Albon is off and out of Q3 💥#F1 #BrazilGP pic.twitter.com/PHNXWPJLAO
His car snapped into a spin approaching the Senna S at the start of the lap and was heavily damaged against the barriers.
Albon immediately suspected repairing the car would be impossible in the short gap before the race, and Williams confirmed this just under an hour before the scheduled start.
Read: Full Brazilian GP starting grid.
"It’s a heartbreaking day for the team," said team principal James Vowles.
"We’re here to go racing and nobody wants to be in this situation.
"The most important point is that all the drivers who had incidents in qualifying are OK, including Alex and Franco.
"Despite the best efforts of our hard-working, talented and resilient team, there simply was not enough time to repair Alex’s car in time for the grand prix.
"It’s a bitter pill to swallow at the end of a tough triple-header, especially when both drivers showed tremendous pace this morning."
Albon suggested immediately after the crash that some form of technical failure had caused it.
"I know we had an issue, we just need to go through it," he said.
"Immediately when I hit the brake pedal there was a beep in my ear which normally means there’s a failure, [there was] rear locking and a big crash."
Colapinto's incident had occurred at Turn 3 in Q1. He was provisionally 18th on the grid before Albon was withdrawn, but the final starting line-up remains unclear as Aston Martin also works on substantial car rebuilds after its own double qualifying shunts.
Carlos Sainz's Ferrari is already set for a pitlane start as a result, while Aston Martin is endeavouring to repairs both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll's cars after both its drivers went off.
Albon's incident means it's the second time this year that Williams has been down to one car for a grand prix as a result of him crashing.
But at the Australian GP in March, it was his then-team-mate Logan Sargeant who sat out the race as Williams handed his car to Albon after his own had been wrecked in a crash in first practice. The team did not have a spare chassis at the time.
