Damaged monocoque leaves Albon sidelined for qualifying

Alex Albon fortunately emerged unscathed from his massive crash in FP3 but the British-Thai racer's Toro Rosso was too damaged to be repaired in time for Saturday's qualifying session.

In the closing stages of Saturday's free practice session, Albon ran wide on the exit of the final corner but lost his battle to control his tank-slapping car which hit the outside tyre wall.

The Toro Rosso was left badly critically damaged by the impact, its left side completely destroyed.

Albon, who had shown strong pace before the incident, was left stranded for qualifying.

• Albon says Tost encourages him to 'just do your thing'

"He cannot take part in qualifying because we investigated the monocoque, and it’s damaged, and this is not possible," Toro Rosso team boss Franz Tost told Motorsport.com.

"It’s part of the learning process. He was so fast in the first run this morning, and also at the end he would have been in the first 10 because in sector one he was 0.2s faster than on his previous run with the new tyres, and he was quick in sector two. OK, in sector three he crashed.

"But the most important thing is he is fast. He knows why he crashed, and that’s important. It’s a lesson to learn, and that’s how it works.

"He has the race tomorrow. I think he is experienced enough to learn what’s important for the future, and forget the rest."

The Faenza-based squad has yet to determine which vital drive train components will have to be replaced, and what could therefore be Albon's eventual penalty tally.

“Honda is investigating, whether we can use it or not, I don’t know yet," added Tost.

"We will see. The problem is that this is the first engine, and then we will have to use another engine from this specification."

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