Williams sends Albon chassis back to factory

Albon came together with Daniel Ricciardo on the first lap of the race in Suzuka, hitting the tyre wall on the outside of Turn 3.

The Thai-licensed driver had started well on soft tyres which allowed him to challenge Ricciardo in the early stages, the Australian struggling for grip on the medium rubber.

Albon moved to the inside of the track exiting Turn 2, drawing largely alongside the RB as Ricciardo moved across the road to prepare for the looming left-hander.

The pair touched wheels and left the road, ending their races with less than half a lap complete.

It was an incident officials looked into post-race, though deemed no further action was required.

However, for the second time in as many races, Williams faces a race against the clock to assess and repair a chassis.

While Albon himself described the impact as comparatively low-speed, the tyre barrier at Suzuka inflicted notable damage to both cars.

Williams is without a spare car, having had to prioritise the repair of the tub damaged by Albon in Australia last time out.

There, a heavy impact with the wall at Turn 6 in opening practice forced the team to send the car back to its Grove headquarters for repair.

It left it with just a single car for the balance of the Australian Grand Prix weekend, with team boss James Vowles taking the decision to withdraw Logan Sargeant in favour of Albon.

The car that was crashed in Albert Park was repaired and driven by Sargeant in Japan. ironically the American crashed the car in opening practice after he ran onto the grass at the Dunlop Curve.

The post-Melbourne repair of that tub saw the production of the spare chassis delayed with it now not expected until the Miami Grand Prix.

It was initially hoped to be with the team for the start of the year, but production delays pushed that back with Vowles in Australia suggesting it would appear in China.

That timeline looks now to have taken another hit, with the workforce back in Grove facing another urgent repair.

The extent of the damage to the FW46 Albon crashed in Suzuka is unclear.

However, that it happened during the race rather than free practice the team already faces a tight timeline to get the car back to base, repaired, and shipped to Shanghai in time for Round 5 of the championship.

The Chinese Grand Prix is scheduled to take place in two weeks, April 19-21.