Albon spin "hugely frustrating" as Red Bull leave Imola pointless

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner denounced Alex Albon's late spin as "hugely frustrating" as the team left the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix pointless.

The team endured one of their worst races of the season at Imola, seeing Verstappen retire from second-place with a tyre failure at Villeneuve chicane before Albon spun at the same corner after the ensuing safety car.

Before the spin, however, Albon had already dropped two positions from fifth in the two chicanes following the restart after being caught napping at Rivazza as Lewis Hamilton got the race back underway.

The spin demoted the British-born Thai driver to last out of the 15 remaining runners and Horner stated the team would have to help Albon overcome his issues ahead of the remaining four races.

"It’s a difficult one for Alex because he was in that race with Charles [Leclerc] and Daniel [Ricciardo] all afternoon," Horner told Sky Sports F1.

"Then at the restart, fighting [Sergio] Perez who was on new tyres, he just lost it at the second chicane, so hugely frustrating for him to come away with zero points and for the team as well.

"We’ll obviously try and work with him between now and Turkey and build him up again and try and go from there."

Albon's future at Red Bull is very much up in the air, with Albon continually struggling to challenge Verstappen in his first full season with the team.

Under increasing pressure, Albon lamented the decision not to make a pit-stop under the safety car, believing a podium opportunity had been missed.

"In hindsight, [we] should’ve stopped when the others did at the end of the race and yeah, of course, we were the first cold tyre car for them to come across so it was always going to be difficult to hold them off.

"I think we had some contact as well which helped me come around and that was it, really. It was just one of them times. If we stopped, we could’ve been looking for a podium but that’s just the way it is."

When asked if the cold tyres played a part in his spin, Albon replied: "No I think someone hit me. I got told I did. If I wasn't, it would be just cold tyres and a lack of downforce. I thought a McLaren showed it's nose but maybe not."

Before you go...

'Nothing broke on the car' - Verstappen left in the dark by tyre failure

Hamilton: No guarantee I'll be in F1 next year

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