Giovinazzi reveals cause of strange practice crash

Antonio Giovinazzi has cited 'inconsistent wind' for crashing out of second practice for the Russian Grand Prix.

The Italian ran wide onto the astroturf at turn eight with just over a third of the session remaining, losing the rear end and sliding backwards into the barriers.

The incident is not what Giovinazzi needed with a cloud hanging over his F1 future, with speculation linking F2 frontrunners Oscar Piastri and Guanyu Zhou, amongst others, to the second Alfa Romeo seat.

Recalling the incident. Giovinazzi explained: "The wind was quite inconsistent during the run. I got a little bit more understeer than the lap before, I touched the grass on the exit and I lost the rear.

"Unfortunately, it happened but otherwise, I think we were not too bad in terms of pace.

"I think FP1 was not so bad and FP2 was okay so tomorrow is another day and Sunday as well but I think it was a good start."

Heavy rain is forecast for the weekend, with a threat to the schedule leading to the first F3 race being run on Friday evening instead of Saturday morning.

"We need to see how much water there will be," said Giovinazzi. "We will see our pace in the wet but we just need to see what will happen."

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