Fernando Alonso 'a passenger' in costly rare F1 mistake

Fernando Alonso believes he was simply a "passenger" during his rare crash during Sprint Qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.

The two-time champion locked up heavily during the closing stages of SQ1 in Montreal and crashed into the Turn 3 barrier, albeit without sustaining serious damage.

It was severe enough, however, to prevent him from reversing out and taking up the SQ2 berth he had earned - the first time all season an Aston Martin has made it out of the first segment of qualifying for either a Sprint or a grand prix. 

He will start the Sprint from 16th place, as the Spaniard admitted to just a simple mistake that caused the accident.

"I locked up the fronts. You are a passenger after that, and yeah, there is no room to avoid anything here in Canada," Alonso reflected.

"So yeah, I was too much on the limit."

Addressing the rare mistake of crashing, Alonso felt the AMR26 was "seven or eight places" ahead of normal.

"Well, we are a little bit behind, you know, and we don't have the pace," he said.

"We are P14 [in SQ1], I guess, so we were pushing 7 or 8 places more than we should have."