Pierre Gasly has accepted responsibility for the heavy crash which prematurely ended his first test for Red Bull and put the team’s participation in the final day in jeopardy.
Gasly, who took the seat vacated by Daniel Ricciardo’s move to Renault, lost control of the rear of the car on the high-speed, uphill run through Turn 9. Onboard replays appeared to show the Frenchman dip a wheel on to the grass just before the approach the entry to the corner.
That caused him to spin off the circuit, across the gravel and into the tyre barrier, wrecking the left-hand side of his car. Gasly admitted fault for the incident after the session.
“I made a mistake in Turn 9 and basically lost the car, pretty big crash, one of the biggest crash I had so far,” he said. “Long night for the mechanics, sorry for them, most important is we can get Max in the car tomorrow. Focus on the positives – we managed to do a lot of testing and things to analyse.”
Gasly’s teammate Max Verstappen is slated to be in the car for Friday, the final day of testing before the Australian Grand Prix weekend. Red Bull is confident it will participate as normal on Friday after a busy night of repairs.
The accident happened on a day which saw Ferrari continue to assert its authority on the timing screens after a couple of shaky sessions. Red Bull has still not offered much glimpses of its true performance over the pre-season so far.