The long turn 1 rundown at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was always going to be chaotic and the start of the 2024 Mexico City GP proved just that with Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon’s massive crash. The Japanese driver was a passenger, as Pierre Gasly drifted a bit which led to contact between Albon and Tsunoda.
Tsunoda‘s VCARB-01 spun across the grass and went straight across the turn one to have a major shunt with the barriers and his right rear tire also flew across in the same direction. Albon also ended up in the barriers and that was the end of both drivers’ races in Mexico.
LAP 1 / 71
Tsunoda spins into the barriers at Turn 1. Alex Albon is also out
Both drivers are OK.
Verstappen made the better start on the front row and launched into the lead of the race! #F1 #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/wFflNKGGRS
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 27, 2024
Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle summarized this incident, “Just contact in the middle of the pack between Albon and Tsunoda. It looked like four into three wouldn’t go there.” Quite aptly, it was a racing incident with three cars trying to go side by side, and Gasly was in fact the main perpetrator, who caused the contact between Albon and Tsunoda.
Williams’ boss James Vowles stated,
“Alex [Albon] was squeezed [on] both sides, and Yuki didn’t do much wrong. We still have a car in this race in a good position with Franco [Colapinto].”
The FIA stewards noted the incident but haven’t launched any investigation on any of the drivers, deeming it a racing incident on the opening lap. All in all, for Albon and Tsunoda, it summarized their awful race weekend.
Albon had a crash earlier on Friday during FP1 with Oliver Bearman, who had stepped into the Ferrari car as one of the rookies. Meanwhile, Tsunoda crashed out in qualifying on Saturday, right in the dying embers of Q2. That was a dampener on his and his RB teammate Liam Lawson’s hopes of getting into the top 10.
The Japanese driver has extended his streak of not scoring points in Mexico with this DNF. Moreover, it doesn’t help his case for putting up a strong audition for a Red Bull promotion in 2025.
