Albon: I was thinking to myself ‘don’t spin it this morning’

Despite the embarrassing start, the Thai 22-year-old put the incident behind him and delivered a solid day of testing for his team. He did spin at speed, but for a rookie and one with so little F1 experience, it was an impressive debut and spins part of finding the limits.

Albon said after his first day as a fully-fledged Grand Prix driver, "Today was up there with one of my all-time great experiences! It’s been a really good day."

"At the start I was thinking to myself ‘don’t spin it this morning’, and that’s exactly what I did! It was really tricky out there because the track was so cold that you couldn’t drive slowly - as soon as you drive too slow your tyres get cold, it becomes unpredictable and it’s like driving on ice."

"Once I got into my rhythm it was a smooth day and we had no issues, apart from a couple of spins later on, but I was just exploring the limits to see what the car was capable of. I did a few laps on Wednesday for our Filming Day, so today wasn’t a totally new experience to drive an F1 car, and I’ve also been in the simulator many times, so I had a general idea of what the car could do."

"However, the high speed of the car is definitely new to me and it was a bit of a positive shock - I’m enjoying it a lot! I’m still smiling from when I got out of the car and I’ll continue smiling throughout tonight until tomorrow!" added Albon.

The rookie completed 132 laps and set the fourth best time with a 1:19.301 which happened to be quicker than the man he replaced in the team, Pierre Gasly in the Red Bull and a tenth faster than the time set by his more experienced teammate Daniil Kvyat on Monday.

https://www.grandprix247.com/2019/02/19/barcelona-day-2-albon-announces-his-arrival-with-a-first-lap-spin/