Mazepin distraught after "one of the worst days of my life” on F1 debut

Nikita Mazepin revealed his Formula 1 debut was “one of the worst days of my life” after the new Haas driver crashed out of the Bahrain Grand Prix on the opening lap.

Mazepin endured a troubled weekend, spinning several times before failing to make it more than a kilometre in the race when he lost control of the VF-21, ended his first grand prix in a barrier.

The Russian took the blame entirely. He explained: “Totally my mistake. I’m very sorry for the team because they deserved to do much better than that. I am very angry with myself.

“The start was quite good. I got into turn two [and] on the outside, [team-mate] Mick [Schumacher] was very close. I was focused on making sure we didn’t make contact.

“I got on the kerb and got too much on the throttle and lost the car. There was no way to get it back. It was one of those very bad days. Very disappointed."

The crash happened in the same place of the Bahrain track where one of the drivers he and Schumacher replaced, Romain Grosjean, suffered his firery crash in the Haas last year.

This time, the crash was not so dramatic and the Russian was uninjured, climbing out of the car and walking away as his car was craned out of the gravel trap, making him the first retiree of the new season.

Despite the challenging weekend, the rookie driver said there were “positives to take”, adding: “You learn a lot, you have your ups and downs, today is one of the biggest downs, but that’s life.

“I’m a human and I make mistakes. I am totally disappointed. Right now, standing here, other than having one of the worst days of my life, there’s not much more I can say.”

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

F1 on TV: How US fans can watch the Italian Grand Prix live and FREE

• 37 minutes ago

Honda boss shocked by Aston Martin F1 disaster: 'Our pride was severely wounded'

• 1 hour ago

Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari have blown glorious F1 title opportunity with spectacular Italian GP implosion

• 2 hours ago

The extraordinary timeline of Pierre Gasly's unbelievable Italian GP pole position

• 2 hours ago

Lewis Hamilton boost as F1 rival hit with Italian Grand Prix penalty after qualifying

• Today 18:55

Toto Wolff blames Max Verstappen for Mercedes losing Italian GP pole position: 'We got done over'

• Today 18:00