Nikola Tsolov has explained the strange issue he suffered during the first practice session for the Mexico City Grand Prix, as he momentarily lost feeling in his legs.
The Bulgarian driver made his first appearance at a grand prix weekend on Friday, standing in for Liam Lawson at Racing Bulls.
The outing came as he seeks to convince the team that he should be selected for a full-time drive next year.
During the session, cameras spotted Tsolov standing up in the cockpit when he returned to the garage after reporting that he was "losing circulation" in his right leg.
Speaking after the session, Tsolov revealed that it is something that has happened before in F2.
"I had that a few times before, driving in F2," Tsolov said. "It's just the seat being a bit tighter than what we would like on my right leg. My blood flow stopped.
"When you press in full throttle, you move up into the seat. That kind of compresses your legs.
"That was the thing; I couldn't feel them. It was a dead leg, pretty much.
"You know when you get the tingly feeling, with pins and needles. That was it in the beginning, and I thought, 'I will do that; it's fine'.
"But at some point I stopped feeling my legs, so I had to jump out. I had to shake it out, and after two or three minutes, it came back."
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Tsolov felt 'ready' for FP1 debut despite lack of F1 mileage
Tsolov is currently contending for the F2 title, sitting seven points adrift of championship leader Rafael Camara with two rounds remaining.
Tsolov is under serious consideration for a drive at Racing Bulls next year, despite the strong performances of both Lawson and rookie team-mate Arvid Lindblad.
The FP1 appearance for Tsolov saw the 19-year-old complete 28 laps, with his best effort just over one-tenth down on Lindblad's time.
Despite his lack of preparation ahead of his FP1 debut, Tsolov insisted he felt ready for the outing.
"I did one TPC (testing of previous cars) day with last year's car in Imola back in August,” he said.
"Then I did a day and a half of sim around two weeks ago with the team in Faenza, and that's about it. That was my preparation.
"I was ready for it. To be honest, I didn't really think about it too much. I didn't really stress it, so I managed to arrive in a calm mental state."
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