Sergey Sirotkin felt the spin he suffered late on during the opening segment of Qualifying for his home Grand Prix was a result of attempting to do something that was beyond the capabilities of his FW41.
The Williams Martini Racing driver attempting to get out of Q1 at the Sochi Autodrom when he spun at turn eight, ending his chance of getting through, with the Russian ending up eighteenth fastest overall as a result.
Sirotkin apologised to his team for the mistake but he felt it came because he was pushing too hard as he wanted to deliver a lap that was not only good but great.
“It was a tricky session and I’m quite disappointed with my mistake at the end,” said Sirotkin, who will start thirteenth once Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly, Brendon Hartley and Fernando Alonso take their grid penalties. “I think we’ve been struggling quite a bit.
“I don’t think we really had that impressive performance today and I just tried to do more than was physically possible. I just didn’t want to do another steady lap, I tried to do something special and I didn’t get away with it.
“Unfortunately, I made a mistake which I’m very sorry and disappointed about. I wanted to do something more than just a good lap.”
Team-mate Lance Stroll had a messy session, with a lock-up seeing him abort his first run, while Sirotkin’s spin ended his chance of advancing through. He ended twentieth and last but, like Sirotkin will do ahead of him, he will move forward to start fifteenth thanks to the grid penalties.
“I did my first run but locked up so had to abort that,” said Stroll. “Then I was on a pretty good lap, but I didn’t get a final run because there were yellow flags due to Sergey spinning.
“We are off the pace, like we have always been, so nothing has really changed. It is frustrating, but we weren’t very quick. We will see what we can do tomorrow.”
