Few drivers have packed as much misfortune into a single weekend as Alex Albon did in Canada. From a bizarre opening to a brutal ending, almost nothing went the Williams driver's way in Montreal.
The trouble arrived immediately. In the only practice session of the weekend, Albon hit a groundhog and crashed, and the resulting damage was bad enough that he was also unable to take part in sprint qualifying. Before he had managed a clean run, his preparation was already in ruins.
He had, briefly, dragged something from the wreckage. Albon was working his way forward and felt a points finish was within reach when, on lap 12, disaster struck again. Oscar Piastri, running a couple of cars behind, suddenly lost grip and slammed into the side of the Williams, pitching Albon out of the race.
The McLaren driver did not duck the blame.
"Obviously the damage was a shame, and apologies to Alex and to Williams," Piastri said. "Certainly wasn't intentional. Just locked up and went to the side of him."
Albon accepted there was nothing malicious in it. His real grievance is more fundamental: he simply cannot string together the mileage he needs. He was still getting to grips with deployment management on lap 12, the very lap Piastri arrived.
"We've got a tricky car, and we're also not getting many laps learned from it," Albon said.
Reliability problems, accidents and disrupted weekends have repeatedly knocked him off course this season, with little clean running to build on. On the other side of the garage, Carlos Sainz has quietly assembled three points finishes, sharpening the contrast.
Montreal was the pattern in miniature: a freak incident on Friday, lost track time on Saturday, and a rival's error on Sunday. What Albon needs from Monaco is simple, a weekend that runs from green light to chequered flag without interruption.
