Ricciardo And Albon Out Of Japanese Grand Prix After Big Crash

Daniel Ricciardo crashed with Alex Albon during the first lap of the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix.

Rb and Williams F1 drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Alex Albon will want to forget the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix as soon as possible after an unfortunate collision on the first lap of the race.

As opposed to the honey badger, Albon had a pretty decent start and was able to to get alonside the Australian driver going into turn 3.

The problem was that Ricciardo didn't expect the Williams driver to be on his right-hand side as he was mainly in battle with Lance Stroll on his left.

Turn three is a left-hand corner, so when Ricciardo went for the racing line and didn't look in his right mirror, he collided with Albon, and both went straight into the wall in the run-off area.

Both drivers hit the wall at pretty high speed, but as opposed to their cars, they were fortunately fine. On the other hand, this might be a crucial moment for Williams, who still doesn't have any spare chassis.

If the chassis on the 28-year-old's car was damaged and could not be repaired until the Chinese Grand Prix, the British team would be in big trouble and potentially able to run only one car.

After a few underwhelming performances in the first three races, the honey badger needed a good race and was in a decent position at the start. However, he obviously didn't get the chance to show what he had in terms of race pace.

The race will restart in the order that drivers were before the crash. So Ricciardo's teammate Yuki Tsunoda lost two positions, and Nico Hulkenberg will start from P10 this time.

Otherwise, it was a smooth start in the top ten, and there were no changes in order. The race control opted for a standing race start.