Pierre Gasly accepted responsibility for his second crash of Formula 1 pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as he brought Red Bull’s long run simulation to a premature halt.
Gasly, who spun into the Turn 12 wall last week, dipped a wheel onto the grass as he entered Turn 9, unbalancing his RB15, and sending it into the exit barriers.
The Frenchman was unscathed in the accident, which happened early in the afternoon session, but the rear and left-hand-side of the car sustained substantial damage.
“I made a mistake in Turn 9 and basically lost the car,” he said.
“It was a pretty big crash, one of the biggest crash I had so far.
“I’m feeling sorry for the guys. They have quite a long night ahead.
“But what is important is that Max [Verstappen] is back in the car [on Friday] and we focus on the positives. “
Reflecting on his pre-season campaign, Gasly said: “We managed to get a lot of laps in my days of testing, we tested a lot of things, looking a bit more on performance today.
“We learned a lot, now we need to go through all the data, a lot of work to do before Melbourne but overall we are pretty pleased.
“Now we have one day in the car with Max before heading to Melbourne.”
