Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda‘s Brendon Hartley‘s streak of misfortune continued today after a big shunt in Free Practice Three saw him unable to compete in qualifying for the 2018 British Grand Prix.
Through no fault of his own, the Kiwi found himself in the barriers at the end of the high-speed Wellington Straight after his suspension failed and pitched him off the track. The considerable damage to the car meant that Toro Rosso was unable to get it out for the afternoon’s qualifying session This leaves Hartley all the way down the order in twentieth place.
Hartley did praise the safety of modern Formula One cars after the crash, as fortunately, he walked away from the incident completely unharmed.
“Today’s crash is another testament to these modern Formula 1 cars and safety,” he commented.
“The fact that I was able to walk away from such an incident with no consequences just shows how far safety has come in the sport. I’m fine, but the car definitely wasn’t!”
“I’m disappointed I missed out on Qualifying, as yesterday we gathered a lot of data preparing for today, and the first couple of corners the car was feeling pretty good.
“I was already three or four tenths of a second quicker than yesterday but then, a couple of corners later it was all over – I hit the brake pedal and all of a sudden the front suspension broke. However, I have full faith in everyone that they will get the car rebuilt and ready for the race, I’m remaining optimistic and we’ll come out fighting tomorrow.”
