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Haas driver Nikita Mazepin was left holding back tears following qualifying at the Brazilian Grand Prix after a mistake cost him potentially his strongest Formula 1 qualifying performance.
Mazepin has yet to outpace team-mate Mick Schumacher in a qualifying session so far this season and was again behind him by 0.260s. The only two occasions where Mazepin has ahead were Monaco, where Schumacher did not run after an FP3 crash, and Baku, where Schumacher shunted before setting a time in Q1.
Schumacher did set a time that put him right with the Williams drivers, lapping just 0.005s slower than George Russell on his final Q1 attempt before it was deleted for a track limits violation.
Mazepin felt he could have produced a lap in that ballpark and potentially even challenged Russell and team-mate Nicholas Latifi, had he not “just tried too hard”. He said this in a post-qualifying interview, clearly holding back the tears with his voice breaking.
“I was on a good lap, then made a mistake,” said Mazepin.
“It felt good. It was our day to actually be close to Williams and do a good quali, but just tried too hard.
“The guys did a really good job. I’ve never driven the sim here and yeah…I f***** up though.”
Keep your head up @nikita_mazepin!
There will be more chances still to come this weekend 👊#BrazilGP 🇧🇷 #F1 @HaasF1Team pic.twitter.com/Vqam3s7gnd
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 12, 2021
That was the phrase Mazepin also employed over the radio following the completion of his final lap in Q3. This was the one push lap on his third run and proved to be marginally slower than his best, set on his second run.
Schumacher also set his best time on his second run, which was 0.302s quicker than Mazepin and within half-a-second of the lead Williams of Latifi.
While Mazepin’s sideways moment at the exit of the Juncao left-hander, which he gathered up despite the car’s lurid angle, was the most spectacular and replayed on the live feed, this wasn’t the moment in question. That happened on his second push lap of the first run in Q1, which he aborted to return to the pits.
Instead, it was a mistake made earlier in the lap on his final run. In the first sector, he was 0.013s faster than Schumacher but failed to carry that advantage through the middle sector. He ran wide in the Turn 8 right-hander, costing him significant time both in that corner and the one that followed, and forcing him to continue to push too hard to make up for it.
Having lost just under six-tenths compared to Schumacher’s last lap in the middle sector, Mazepin also lost time compared to his personal best in the last sector, resulting in a lap that was four-hundredths of a second slower than his best. A small moment mid-corner at Junaco compromised his exit speed but he was only a tenth off his personal best, so it was the middle sector that really ruined his lap.
When he crossed the line, Mazepin reported over the radio “what a f****** idiot I am”. After some reassuring words from race engineer Dominic Haines, who said “that was going awesome until then” and told him not to “best yourself up about it”, Mazepin then said “why do I try too f****** hard when I don’t have to?”.
At the end of his in lap, Mazepin also apologised to the team for his mistake and paid tribute to their set-up work.
