Gasly: Mistake led to one of my biggest F1 crashes

Pierre Gasly concedes driver error led to one of the “biggest crashes” of his Formula 1 career so far on the penultimate day of pre-season testing. 

The Red Bull driver was on his 66th lap when he lost control of his RB15 and slammed into the barriers at the fast right-hander of Turn 9.  

Gasly appeared to touch the grass on the left-hand side of the track as he entered the corner, sending him spinning out of control rearwards into a hefty impact. 

While he emerged from his wrecked car unharmed, extensive damage brought a premature end to his final day in Red Bull’s 2019 challenger ahead of the start of the new season. 

“I made a mistake in Turn 9 and basically lost the car,” Gasly admitted. 

“It was a pretty big crash, one of the biggest crashes I had so far.

“It will be a long night for the mechanics, [so I am] sorry for them, most important is we can get Max in the car tomorrow. 

“Focusing on the positives - we managed to do a lot of testing and things to analyse.” 

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner added: "Pierre's pre-season test comes to an end in Barcelona with an unfortunate off this afternoon.

"These things happen and the main thing is that he is ok  We will be back on track tomorrow to make the most of our last day of running before Melbourne."

Gasly ended the day with the fourth-fastest time, though he was unable to get close the eye-catching pace managed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. 

Asked if he felt he could have matched or bettered the quickest time set in testing so far, Gasly replied: “Honestly no. 

“To be fair I think they are really fast, they show some good pace, try to focus on ourselves and not focus too much on the others. 

“We have some potential, we tested a lot of things, we have good performance, but we have to work hard as well as they seem really fast."