Fernando Alonso criticizes the driving standards observed among the lower half of the F1 grid.

This contact forced Alonso onto the outside kerb, resulting in a further loss of four places. The damage to the Aston Martin's floor was clearly visible from Albon's on-board footage. Alonso managed to finish in 12th place at the chequered flag, but he was clearly unhappy when addressing the media.

"That was the biggest damage," he stated. "I believe we lost half a second or more [per lap]. The car is wrecked; I saw it in parc ferme. Half of the floor is missing. I’m not sure how we kept going and remained somewhat competitive.

"I can imagine that if the car had been intact, scoring points today would have been a strong possibility because we were running P12 with a damaged car. I lost even more pieces of the floor. I struggled to turn. So we considered retiring the car. I was prepared to switch it off.

Alexander Albon, Williams, Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin Racing

"But then they fitted a new front wing and I went back out. Clearly, the car was handling well to the right but poorly to the left for the last 15 laps of the race. However, we wanted to finish and gather a bit more data.

"When you start from the back, there’s always that risk. I believe the skill level of the drivers in the lower third of the grid is quite low. As we saw today with Alex. Therefore, we need to enhance the car and aim to start a bit further up." 

The stewards did not consider the contact worthy of investigation, viewing it as a typical outcome of three cars competing for the same space at that corner.

"It seemed like there was a car on Fernando's right," Albon explained. "And he left enough room for Fernando, thinking there was only one car on his inside. But I was actually on Fernando's inside.

"So I think it got tight, and I tried to move out of the way and onto the kerb. But I didn’t manage it well. I can only assume he sustained damage. I know I did, as we were racing with a broken wing."