Lewis Hamilton and Alex Albon narrowly avoid scary Saudi GP crash - 'That was a close one'

26.03.2022 - 12:03 / msn.com

Lewis Hamilton and Alex Albon narrowly avoided a scary crash during Friday's second practice session ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Albon only returned to F1 at the start of the season after being dropped by Red Bull at the end of 2020. Mercedes' Hamilton struggled during the first practice session on Friday and could only clock the ninth fastest time.

Albon, who is racing for Williams this year, fared even worse in P1 and was 17th fastest. The duo were obviously desperate to improve their times during P2 and push their cars to the limit ahead of Saturday's qualifying session. And during P2, Albon looked to slightly misjudge one of the corners and approached it too fast as he veered over the kerb.

The 26-year-old fortunately managed to steer his car away from Hamilton, who was on a slower lap just in front of him on the track. The Brit was able to whizz clear to avoid what would have been a calamitous collision. And the Sky Sports F1 commentary team were in agreeance that any contact would have been disastrous.

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton unhappy with F1 chiefs for Saudi Arabian GP changes"That was a close one," admitted Anthony Davidson moments after witnessing the near-miss. "What a good job that was at a part of the track where there was a bit of visibility," replied David Croft. And Paul di Resta exclaimed: "That could have taken two cars out for the rest of this session.

"The earlier practice session was rocked on Friday following a missile attack on an oil depot around 12 miles from the Jeddah circuit. The attack caused a huge blaze as thick clouds of black smoke filled the air in the distance. Yemen's Houthi rebels have apparently taken responsibility for the attack, which led F1 chief Stefano Domenicali to