Nyck de Vries seemed to be going well during practice on Friday, setting a sixth time. His AlphaTauri seemed to be competing well on the Baku Street Circuit. There had been so much in it during qualifying, but the Dutchman hit the wall hard.

Car De Vries in order after hard crash

That is why De Vries will start at the back on Sunday. GPBlog spoke to AlphaTauri team boss Franz Tost about the damage. That, fortunately, does not seem to be too bad. Tost: "The car is okay. There is no crucial damage. Only the suspension on the right side and the front wing and nose have been hit. They are all parts we could easily replace."

It does give food for thought to the Dutch driver who did not get off to a good start as suspected. It is only the fourth race of the season, which is why Tost thinks not to judge too heavily yet. Yuki Tsunoda starts strongly and for De Vries it looks less comfortable.

'Rookies need three years'

Tost is happy with Tsunoda's strong start to the season and says of his teammate: "When a rookie comes to F1, he needs at least three years to really understand what happens here. Look at this weekend here in Baku. We have one practice and then we will qualify. The problem is that this is very difficult for rookies."

Tost: "What happened with Nyck yesterday is very logical. He braked a bit too late. He probably expected more grip and then he lost the car. It's a learning process and crashes are part of it. There is no one driver who never crashes." Tost is leaving AlphaTauri after this year, so whether De Vries will actually get those extra two years? That is no longer up to the current team boss.