Pierre Gasly says he was unaware of the extent of the damage to his front wing before he crashed out of Formula 1 Sprint in Italy.
Gasly started from sixth place but worked his way up to fourth entering the first chicane at Monza.
However, he lightly tagged third-placed Daniel Ricciardo through the corner and sustained damage to his front wing.
The front wing lodged itself under Gasly’s AlphaTauri AT02 as he rounded Curva Grande and he skated through the gravel before hitting the barriers.
Gasly emerged from the incident unhurt, however he is now forced to start Sunday’s grand prix from the back of the grid.
“I felt the contact with Daniel and straight after that I went on the radio to ask the team ‘let me know if there’s something’ and literally two seconds after that the front wing went under the car and I went straight into the wall,” Gasly said.
“I could see some sparks, but I didn’t know if it was the endplate which was scratching on the floor or if it was actually the front wing that was fully dislocated.
“Basically it was I think five or six seconds after the contact it went under the car and that was it.
“That’s definitely not a nice feeling, because even if you have a problem as long as you can turn and kind of direct the car in the direction that you want that’s fine.
“But at such a speed when I felt the front wing under the car and I was turning but just going straight into the wall was clearly not a nice feeling.
“At the end I’m fine and that’s the most important, but obviously very disappointed because we had a very good start.”
Gasly added that he perhaps could’ve anticipated that Ricciardo was going to brake midway through the corner and avoid contact altogether.
“It’s always difficult. I haven’t seen his onboard but he braked,” Gasly said. “You always expect people to brake at a certain point but he braked earlier than I expected and by the time I reacted was too late.
“So obviously I should have anticipated it more, but I don’t know if he reacted to Max [Verstappen] or the cars in front.
“I don’t know exactly the angle… as soon as a car starts to turn in there it can [filter] back quite quickly, and by the time I saw he braked I jumped on the brake but I was so close I touched him.”
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