Seat problem threw Sirotkin out of his comfort zone, literally

Sergey Sirotkin wasn't exactly flying by the seat of his pants yesterday, but a seat issue almost led to the Russian parking it at Barcelona.

The Williams driver survived the first lap carnage but lingered thereafter at the back of the field for the better part of the 66-lap race.

The rookie struggled to make it to the end however, his discomfort increasing with every passing lap.

"It's the toughest race I ever did so far, I wouldn't even call it a race, really," he said as he described his ordeal.

"I had a good start, a good launch, and then obviously I was caught in Turn 3 with those spins and the crash ahead, and I was just in a position where I completely could not see where I was going.

"Then I started to struggle with… let's say it this way to not upset anyone – the problem is with seat comfort," he added.

• Wurz offers insight into Williams' big fundamental issue

"We had it since the beginning of the year and we never really had the opportunity to properly look and improve it, we did a couple of changes and I'm not sure they were in the right way.

"So it was really massive. I was really struggling... just staying in the car."

The Russian tried to keep his head down and focus on the job at hand, but Sirotkin was eventually caught out on the restart after the two-lap VSC period.

"Obviously at this track you cannot overtake, we were not having the best race, but we were just there.

"And then with all of this uncomfortable - and I would probably call it much more, very painful - feeling I was getting, it was definitely not helping the race and the stint and the focus.

"Then I made a mistake on the restart after the safety car and spun. So it was really surviving to the end."

Williams and Sirotkin discussed his 'seat problem' straight after the race, hoping tosolve the issue for next week's Monaco Grand Prix.

"Even now, which is strange, we spent maybe 40 minutes back in the garage and we already found some interesting bits to improve," he said.

"So I think for Monaco it will be much easier with the issues I had today."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter