'Very angry' Mazepin owns up to first lap blunder

Nikita Mazepin's F1 debut in Bahrain on Sunday lasted just three corners after the Haas rookie put a foot wrong on the opening lap and hit the barrier.

Mazepin had gained an edge over teammate Mick Schumacher on the run down to the first corner, but lost traction on the exit, a warning sign for things to come.

The Russian pressed on however but then lost it on the right hand Turn 3 dog leg, hitting the barreier and inflicting terminal damage to his car.

"I crashed, I’m so sorry guys," said Mazepin as he radioed in to his team. "I got on the kerb, tried to avoid Mick and then spun."

Later on, the 22-year-old owned up to the blunder which was made more painful by the fact that both Haas team boss Guenther Steiner had urged both his driver to bring their car to the checkered flag, a feat accomplished on Sunday by Schumacher.

"It was very simple, I made a mistake," admitted Mazepin who earned himself the unenviable nickname "Mazespin" this weekend.

"The tyres were cold, I got on the kerb, took too much throttle and spun. Totally my mistake.

"I’m very sorry to the team, because they deserve to do much better than that. I’m very angry with myself and very sorry for the team."

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A forgiving Steiner put his driver's mistake down to "learning".

"Nikita, obviously, we all saw had a spin on the first lap which compromised his race," he said.

"He doesn’t feel great about it, but we put it down as learning. He will get back at it again at the next race weekend, for sure he’s learned from this weekend."

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