Gasly "caught by surprise" in F1 test crash

Gasly, making his debut behind the wheel of Red Bull's new Honda-powered RB15 after Max Verstappen drove it during a filming-day shakedown and the opening day of the test, crashed at Turn 12 with just over an hour to go in the day.

The car snapped out of control as he went through the corner, and the Frenchman spun rear-end-first into the tyre wall.

Asked to explain his crash at the end of the day, Gasly admitted it had been caused by driver error.

He said: “Basically you are pushing the car to the limits and playing with the limits. I went on throttle and lost the rear, and basically that was it.

“It caught me a bit by surprise and not much you can do once it is done. We have six more days of testing and a lot of stuff to test."

Gasly insisted it had been a “very positive” first day in the RB15 despite the crash.

He finished the day with 92 laps to his name and a best laptime of 1m19.814s on the C3 tyre, which was good enough for seventh fastest on the day and was four tenths short of what Verstappen had managed on Monday.

“I was really excited to be back behind the wheel,” Gasly said. “We did some positive tests over the day.

“I felt very comfortable in the car. We feel there is some really good potential.

"We need to understand more our package but the first feedback is good.”

Gasly, who drove a Honda-engined Toro Rosso car last year, praised the reliability displayed by the Japanese manufacturer's power units over the first two days of the 2019 pre-season test.

“I think so far it has been really good,” he said. “Also looking at Toro Rosso, they have managed to do a lot of laps [209 over two days] so we need to use all the feedback.

“But so far we are really happy with the job they [Honda] have done. Still more tests to do over the next six days but really happy so far.”

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