Kobayashi apologises for crash

Kamui Kobayashi: "I ended up in the wall in Q2 and the accident was my fault" © Getty Images

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Kamui Kobayashi has taken the full blame for his accident during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix and admitted he pushed too hard in the pursuit of a top ten grid slot.

He was among the top ten in final practice and was attempting to repeat the feat in Q2 when his Sauber took off over the kerbs at turn 10 and crashed into the barriers. The front wing and front right suspension demolished on impact and he will start Sunday's race from 17th on the grid.

"I ended up in the wall in Q2 and the accident was my fault," he said. "I feel very sorry for the team. I took too much kerb in turn 10, the car jumped too high and this was the outcome. I saw a chance to fight for Q3, but it didn't work out.

"I was taken to the medical centre and was quite surprised at how carefully they checked me. However, physically I'm absolutely fine. I will do my utmost tomorrow to fight for points and give something back to the team."

Sauber's head of track engineering Giampaolo Dall'Ara said the team would assess the damage overnight.

"For Kamui that was unfortunate," he said. "Luckily he didn't hit concrete, but the angle he went in was not nice. However, now we need to look at the car and hope the chassis is not broken."

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