Giovinazzi admits qualifying crash was ‘my mistake’ – and says Q3 might have been possible

Antonio Giovinazzi says he might have made it into the top ten pole position shoot out in Baku, had he not crashed out of the first section of qualifying.

The Italian – fresh from scoring his first point of the season last time out in Monaco – was on a lap in Q1 when he overcooked it and hit the barriers at Turn 15, immediately ending his day and bringing out the red flags.

Unbelievably, the Alfa Romeo driver's crash was an almost carbon copy of Lance Stroll's shunt at the same spot on the track, which happened just minutes earlier and also stopped the session. The track had, in fact, only been clear a matter of minutes after Stroll's Aston Martin was cleared, before Giovinazzi's accident.

Afterwards the 27-year-old accepted the blame for the crash – and said he thought he might even have been able to get through to Q3 had he kept it out of the barriers.

"I think this afternoon, the wind increased, and it was a little bit more difficult to drive," he said. "Sorry to the team, it was my mistake. At least it’s not Monaco so you can still have a great race tomorrow and this is our target – not give up and try to do better tomorrow.

"For sure, today I think maybe Q2 was possible, maybe Q3, but like I said, we don’t give up – tomorrow is another day, and we can overtake from here so we need to think about tomorrow and try to do our best tomorrow."

Giovinazzi will start on the back row, after the stewards granted him and Lance Stroll permission to race, despite neither having set a time in qualifying.

READ MORE: Stroll ‘frustrated’ by Q1 crash after unfortunate day for Aston Martin in Azerbaijan