Jack Doohan has revealed how he was "fighting gremlins" throughout Saudi Arabian Grand Prix practice, before committing an "embarrassing" double-blunder.
The Alpine driver was pinged by the stewards for cutting across the pit-entry line and into a painted area, something race director Rui Marques forbade in his pre-event notes.
For the first incident, Doohan was simply handed a warning, but for the second incident, he was handed a reprimand - following precedent set by Liam Lawson in Friday practice.
Reflecting, Doohan felt the incident was "embarrassing."
"To be honest, it was quite embarrassing," Doohan told media, including RacingNews365.
"I was ultra-focused and not really even thinking as I straight-lined it, and in the end, it was fractions.
"So at least I was able to get that out of the way in practice, I didn't want to, but I definitely knew to take a little bit more margin, and almost remember to switch off that focus coming out of the last corner."
As for his 17th place on the grid, Doohan explained how he was fighting "gremlins", but was able to overpower them.
"I was not happy [on Friday] and in a really weird place, fighting anomalies and some underlying gremlins," he added.
"It was just putting us in a direction from where I've been all year, and we were able to get back to a happy place for [Saturday].
"It was a shame we've lost the two practice sessions to evolve, but I was able to gain a bit of confidence back, but I missed those sessions, and I'm constantly catching up on lost time."
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