Red Bull's Alexander Albon has revealed that Lewis Hamilton reached out to him after the Brazilian Grand Prix to apologise for his part in their collision, which potentially cost Albon his maiden Formula 1 podium.
On the penultimate lap of the Brazilian Grand Prix and following a late pit stop under the Safety Car, Mercedes' Hamilton found himself in third behind Albon, with the second Red Bull of Max Verstappen leading the race.
Hamilton dived down the inside at the Bico do Pato corner after Albon left a gap, but the pair collided with Albon spinning and rejoining in last place. Whilst Hamilton rejoined in third, having been passed by Pierre Gasly, he was later demoted to seventh with a time penalty.
The six-time champion immediately apologised to Albon and then admitted fault during the pre-podium interviews.
Albon revealed that Hamilton took it upon himself to send a private apology later that day.
"It hurts but there will be plenty more chances in the future," said Albon, who was recently confirmed as Verstappen's team-mate for the 2020 season
"Lewis was really good about it. He sent me a message on DMs [direct messages] so he was very apologetic."
Albon accepts some blame
Albon doesn't believe Hamilton is 100 per cent to blame for the clash and admitted he could have approached the corner differently.
"There are different circumstances, of course I don’t blame Lewis wholly," he added. “There are ways I could have avoided the crash you could say.
"I was surprised to begin with but I think it was just one of those things, the way it happens and the way the corner is and things like that.
"It’s one of them things. If you over defend in a corner like that, you are just going to open yourself up more going into Turn 1, you don’t want to lose time in places you don’t want to lose time. Because if your car has better speed and you start over defending everywhere, you are going to get overtaken.
"I think definitely just the way it happened, it felt like if I did it again I could have opened up the gap and been a bit more wider in the corner but in the moment it was just one of those things. Of course I would have preferred there not to have been contact."
