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The first qualifying session at the Azerbaijan GP didn't go too well for Nyck de Vries. He crashed trying to brake hard into a corner, locking up his front right tire and getting right into the wall.
The red flag was waved just seven minutes after the qualifying session for the main race in Baku. With 10 minutes remaining on the clock, there could be a lot for other drivers on the grid, but certainly not for De Vries and AlphaTauri. His time in Formula 1, apart from his debut in Italy in 2022, has been a little difficult.
Social media saw a huge backlash after the crash as it ruined the experience after a month's break from Formula 1. Here are some of the best reactions from Twitter.
"Franz tost must be fuming"
"consider me surprised if nyck de vries is still in f1 after the summer break"
Many also blamed the new sprint weekend format that has been put in use for the Azerbaijan GP. Since there was and will only be one practice session, it seems that teams did suffer to an extent due to the lack of time.
"Sprint format just ruined his weekend. Short practicing prevents from learning, adjusting, readapting."
De Vries suffered from issues before leaving for his qualifying lap at the Azerbaijan GP
A late message that was shown on the telecast showed that the Dutchman was suffering from issues even before he left for his qualifying lap. Right after he left his garage, he alerted his team about an issue with his brake wire before he was pushed back in again by the crew:
"Alarm is still there, I still have brake by wire off. What do I do?"
To which his team responded:
"OK Nyck, we have an issue. P1, back to P1. We try to solve it in the garage."
This certainly wasn't the best start to his Azerbaijan GP qualifying session, before it soon got worse. Since the red flag was waved much earlier in the session, it perhaps would not affect other drivers who had not set their best lap times.
The result of today's (April 28) qualifying will set the grid for the main race on Sunday. Another qualifying session on Saturday will be for the sprint race that will be held on Saturday itself.
