De Vries admits to 'very silly and unnecessary' Baku mistake

AlphaTauri's Nyck de Vries' owned up to the "very silly" mistake that put him in wall after just nine laps in Sunday's Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Starting at the back of the grid, de Vries enjoyed a strong start, gaining two positions in the opening lap of the race and then moving up to P12 as the field initiated its first pit stops.

But a brush with the inside wall at Turn 5 on lap 9 as he was chasing Kevin Magnussen and Zhou Guanyu sent the Dutchman into the opposite barrier and into retirement.

It was de Vries' second crash of the weekend, the AlphaTauri charger also ending up in the wall on his first push lap in qualifying on Friday.

"It was fully my mistake, very silly and very unnecessary," said de Vries of his blunder on race day.

"That’s on me, nothing more to add. Just disappointed with myself. It is what it is, I screwed up. I paid the price.

"There are positives to take away from this weekend and I’ll try to look at them.

"I am happy to be racing again next week so I forget this weekend as soon as possible."

• Read also: F1i's Driver Ratings for the 2023 Azerbaijan GP

While AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost was likely unimpressed with the rookie's weekend, the team could at least take a degree of comfort from Yuki Tsunoda's run to P10.

After tagging the wall in free practice, Tsunoda took note and improved his performance although he put himself in harm's way again at the start of Saturday's Sprint, crashing out of the shorter distance race after a contact with de Vries damaged the Japanese driver's front wing.

However, a steady drive on Sunday - most of which was spent battling McLaren's Lando Norris - rewarded Tsunoda with P10 and the final point of the day.

"We didn’t get many chances to do long runs this weekend but to be able to demonstrate a strong pace, and build on this performance throughout the race, was awesome from the team," commented Tsunoda.

"I am also happy with my performance. I was consistent, and being sandwiched between the two McLarens meant any mistake would cost us the point.

"It took a lot of concentration but in the end, we were able to achieve another top-ten finish.

"There is still room for development and improvement to fight for points consistently, but I have confidence in my team to race stronger in the future."

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