Brendon Hartley was left to rue a mistake in the closing moments of final practice that saw him have a heavy crash at turn nine, with the incident leaving his STR13 with heavy damage and himself out of Qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda driver pushed too hard entering the turn that saw him touch the grass, which pitched his car into a spin and a one-way trip into the barriers.
“It was quite a big impact!” admitted Hartley, who will start right at the back of the field for Sunday’s race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
“We normally run a bit of kerb on the entry to Turn 9, but I took one or two centimetres too much and I just clipped the dirt area which flipped the car around pretty quick.”
Hartley said the car was feeling good during practice, even though he did not manage to get a clean run towards the end of the session, which he feels left him an unrepresentative seventeenth.
At least he can look back at the 2017 event when Daniil Kvyat started at the rear of the field to finish inside the top ten, something he hopes to emulate on Sunday.
“The car was feeling good this morning, I didn’t have a clean run at the end of the session, so the lap time didn’t show the true pace we had,” said the New Zealander. “I’ll try and stay positive.
“I’ll have a good sleep and come back tomorrow fresh, anything is possible. I know the team started from the back of the grid last year and scored points, so that has to be the goal for tomorrow.”
