Hartley apologises for 'scary' F1 qualifying incident with Gasly

The incident occurred at the end of Q1 in Azerbaijan, as Gasly happened upon a touring Hartley near the end of the lap before Turn 15.

Hartley was going slowly, as he'd hit the wall and punctured his front-left tyre, and Gasly had to take evasive action to avoid a massive accident, ending up down the escape road.

Hartley admitted he was at fault for the incident, but he was unaware that Gasly was on a flying lap and was catching him so quickly.

"It was a disaster, pretty upset about that," said Hartley. "I hadn't put a lap on the board before then both times yellow flags on my lap.

"Then I clipped the wall and through the left hander I knew I had an issue and slowed down, I was unaware Pierre was so close behind me.

"Obviously I was going half speed, trying to figure how bad the problem was and I completely messed it up.

"The problem is, with the walls, you don't see them coming.

"I made a big mistake, I'm sorry for him. I owe him a big apology for getting in the way and nearly causing a huge accident.

"I'm disappointed how that went down. Not a good day."

Gasly said: "It was really scary, the scariest moment of my career. I didn't know if he was going left or going right.

"I don't know what happened to Brendon, he slowed down massively. I was at 320kph and, honestly... he almost stopped, I tried to avoid him and I was sure I was going to crash.

"I could already see myself in the air, I don't know how I avoided it, but it was a pretty scary moment.

"Maybe if he has a puncture it doesn't help him. I am sure he didn't do it on purpose, but he was on the line, I wasn't sure if he was going to go on line or not.

"Maybe next time we need a bigger gap between [our] two cars."