Max Verstappen disbelief after 'lot of damage' crash

Max Verstappen has revealed his disbelief at the scale of Yuki Tsunoda's accident in Emilia Romagna Grand Prix qualifying. 

Tsunoda destroyed his Red Bull early in Q1 at Imola, and clipping the kerb at the Villeneuve chicane and being spat into the barriers, where he flipped multiple times.

Fortunately, he escaped without injury, but there was a lengthy red flag for barrier repairs, with Verstappen, who went onto qualify in second behind pole-sitter Oscar Piastri explaining his shock at the scale of the smash. 

"Well, first, of course, I asked if he's OK," Verstappen told media including RacingNews365. 

"And I heard yeah, he's OK. But then I saw the replay — I'm like, “Jesus, is he really OK?”

"It was a big impact, with a lot of damage as well. 

"But the most important thing is that Yuki is okay."

Pole-sitter Piastri added that whilst drivers would take notice of the accident, it was important not to be distracted.

"Obviously, when there's a shunt that big, it's hard to not look at it," he said.

"But I think generally in racing — and in a lot of things in life — when you start to second-guess or doubt what you're doing, that's when things go wrong. 

"You need to commit, especially on a track like this. So, of course, you probably think about it a little bit, but by the time you get to the corner, you're back in the groove of doing what you've done the rest of the weekend."