Rio Haryanto admits the coming together he had with Romain Grosjean in the Melbourne pit lane happened after he had “some clutch hesitation” out of the Manor garage.
The Indonesian rookie clipped the right hand side of the Haas driver as the pair simultaneously exited their boxes at the start of the final free practice. Following an investigations by the stewards, Haryanto was given a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix.
“Honestly I didn’t plan to have a collision, but it’s one of those things,” the 23-year-old debutant explained. “Obviously we went out of the garages at exactly the same time and it was quite narrow. I was looking at getting out of the garage and I didn’t expect him to also be coming quickly in the pit lane.
“I had some clutch hesitation and to be honest I didn’t see that Romain was coming but I’m sure he would have seen me there as I was just next to him.
“It’s time to move on and I’m sure myself and the team will learn from it.”
Despite the mishap, Haryanto managed to bounce back to out-qualify his highly rated team-mate Pascal Wehrlein later in the afternoon when he set the 21st fastest time in Q1. Asked whether he was pleased with the achievement of beating the 2015 DTM champion right off the bat, Haryanto replied:
“Yes. Even during testing he was always ahead of me and I think in qualifying with the same conditions on the track at the same time it was really close. I did the best of what I can do and I’m sure there is still more to come.”
Haryanto’s penalty means the Indonesian racer will take his maiden grand prix start from the last spot on the grid.
REPORT: Hamilton takes pole amid farcical qualifying scenes
2016 F1 season: Team-by-team preview
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
