Latifi, Williams, DutchGP — Photo: © LAT Images

Dutch Grand Prix

Williams reveal "extensive damage" to Latifi car but wait on penalty call

Latifi reached Q2 for the second race in succession

Ian Parkes & Ewan Gale

Saturday 4 September 2021 21:15

Williams head of vehicle performance Dave Robson has provided a breakdown on the "extensive damage" suffered in Nicholas Latifi's qualifying crash at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Robson revealed the team was still inspecting whether the Canadian would be faced with a grid penalty for a gearbox change.

Latifi was pushing hard after a red-flag delay in Q2 caused by an off for team-mate George Russell when he dipped a wheel into the dirt on turn in at the high-speed turn eight, colliding heavily with the barrier.

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Asked if a penalty was impending, Robson replied: "Not 100 per cent sure yet. Just going through that. The damage is fairly extensive.

"There is definitely going to be quite a lot of replacement parts on there and we will take a look at the gearbox and decide. Not sure yet.

"Quite a lot of aero damage, so front wing, rear wing, floor all damaged. Rear suspension, both sides damaged so all of that will get replaced with different versions of the same components.

"All of that will be penalty-free so it will just come down to the gearbox. The power unit is all looking fine so I think just down to the gearbox."

Latifi - "I don't think Q3 was on the cards"

Latifi reached Q2 for the second time in a row and was improving on his best time before he crashed.

On whether he felt a maiden top-10 outing was within reach, Latifi conceded: “I don’t think Q3 was going to be on the cards, at least on that last lap.

"We were not expecting even to get out of Q1. It was going to be a challenge to get out of Q1 based on what we showed yesterday.

"So we did a different strategy using most of our tyres in Q1 and in the end, I think we could have got through on two like we normally do.

“The pace was actually quite strong and unfortunately my only new set was the first red flag in Q2 so that kind of wasted that set.

“Surprisingly, at the end there I went out on another new set of tyres and I was improving my lap time compared to what I did in Q1 which was on the Q3 cut-off.

“People would have probably improved but it would have been a decent lap and I kind of said I had nothing to lose, I might lose the tyres in the end but just go for it or I’m just going to be P15 anyway.

“I just misjudged the turn-in point and clipped the grass.”