Williams driver Alex Albon has escaped a penalty following a near miss with Esteban Ocon in qualifying at the Qatar Grand Prix, the FIA has announced.
It comes after the Williams team was hit with a €5,000 fine for an unsafe release involving Albon’s teammate Carlos Sainz.
Alex Albon and Williams escape penalty after FIA investigation over Esteban Ocon near miss
Albon and Ocon qualified 15th and 17th respectively for Sunday’s race at the Lusail circuit, with the pair involved in a near miss in the pit lane in Q1.
Ocon was forced to brake as Albon entered the fast lane as the Haas was approaching.
Although footage of the incident is yet to emerge, a snippet of team radio revealed that Ocon reported that there was “almost a crash” in the pit lane in the first segment of qualifying.
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Albon and Ocon, along with team representatives of the Williams and Haas teams, were summoned to the stewards after qualifying.
The stewards have confirmed that Albon will face no further action.
The stewards’ verdict read: “The Stewards heard from the driver of Car 23 (Alexander Albon), the driver of Car 31 (Esteban Ocon), team representatives and reviewed external video and in-car video evidence.
“Car 23 was advised to leave the garage and to pull into the fast lane however Car 31 was also leaving its garage and accelerated quicker than expected by the team of Car 23.
“Simultaneously Car 27 was released from the garage adjacent to Williams.
“The driver of Car 23 stated that he could not move back into the slow lane because of Car 27, and could not accelerate out of the way of Car 31 because his teammate, Car 55, was immediately in from of him.”
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Discussing the incident before the verdict arrived, Albon claimed a problem with the rules was to blame for drivers leaving the pits at the same time in qualifying.
He told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets: “When we’re all scrapping, I think we all have a five-minute window to leave the pits.
“So then it depends how everyone launches, but we launched at the same time and we came together in the middle.
“I think it’s going to be like that until this rule changes. I hope they don’t do anything.
“In that position, when the mechanic tells you to go, you will just go and we will just launched into the fast lane.
“Maybe Esteban had a bit of a better reaction time to his mechanics.”
Ocon added: “It was close, but it’s the game really.
“All the time, the mechanics are pushing for track position in that one.
“Obviously, as it was my first [time] out [in the session], the brakes were cold and I was full on the brakes and almost hit him, but all good.”
Additional reporting by Mat Coch and Thomas Maher
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