Kimi Antonelli has taken responsibility for incorrectly aborting his final lap in Austrian Grand Prix qualifying, costing himself a shot at pole position.
The Italian was on provisional pole after the first runs of the pole shootout, but had fallen to third as he began his final flying lap as the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton leapfrogged him.
However, in the dying seconds of qualifying, Max Verstappen crashed at Turn 9 to bring out the yellow flags, which Antonelli crucially believed were double-waved yellows.
This means a driver must slow down and be prepared to stop, but in reality, only single-waved yellows were being waved - in which a driver must demonstrate that they have simply lifted through the affected area.
Antonelli's team-mate George Russell did this as he roared to a fourth pole of the season, with Antonelli fourth on the grid - his lowest grand prix grid slot of the season.
Reflecting, the teenager took responsibility for aborting the lap when he did not need to do so.
"I saw a double-yellow, so it's probably my mistake, but I aborted the lap, and that was it," Antonelli told media, including RacingNews365.
"I heard 'yellow yellow', but I was looking at the marshal, and probably I saw it wrong, I saw two flags instead of one and I aborted.
"It was also hard to see because the sun was in the face, and I just looked at the marshal, because the panel went yellow, but of course, you don't know if it was a single or a double yellow.
"So I looked at the marshal, and it was hard to see, and I thought I saw double yellows instead of one, so I just aborted completely.
"I would have been one-tenth behind [Russell], so it would have been on the front row, but still not enough for pole.
"There was a car in the wall on a fast corner, so I don't know why it didn't go double-yellow straight away, because it is a super-quick corner.
"If you go off at the same time, you can end up very badly, so it was a bit confusing, but it is what it is."
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