By Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Interlagos
Alexander Albon brought a wet first practice session at the Brazilian Grand Prix to a premature end with a crash on slick tires on a damp track.
The Anglo-Thai , who this week was confirmed as a Red Bull driver for 2020, lost control at the last corner, Juncao, and broke the front suspension and wing.
Albon also ended the session fastest after running when the track was president on intermediate tires a few minutes earlier.
His team-mate Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc also had offs in the treacherous conditions.
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They both lost control at Turn Two but neither caused any damage.
Verstappen spun, at almost the same time as Albon went off, and was able to continue without hitting anything. Leclerc merely had a wobble.
And Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat also spun, this time at Turn One, as he also tried the untreated dry-weather tires.
The list of times were unrepresentative because of the changing conditions, but Albon was quickest by 0. 551 seconds from Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Leclerc.
The track started very wet at the beginning of the session after heavy rain , but the rain stopped shortly after the end of the session.
The track progressively dried but the incidents at the end proved it was not quite enough for slick tires. )
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