Robert Kubica: Baku qualifying crash shows I must leave more margin

Kubica crashed into the barrier at the tight Turn 8 right-hander late in the first segment of Baku qualifying, having clipped the wall entering the corner.

The crash consigned him to 19th on the grid, as he was outqualified by team-mate George Russell for a fourth race in a row.

Kubica has not been comfortable with his FW42 chassis since the start of the season, and admitted he could have taken more care through the twisty section of the Azerbaijan street circuit given his continued struggles with the car.

"I turned in a bit too early and clipped the left wall on the inside, the damage opened up the wheel there and then it pushed me into the outside wall," Kubica explained.

"With the cooler track conditions, the warm-up was a bigger issue than in FP3.

"Then we had an issue which we also had yesterday, which isn't bringing a lot of confidence but I don't want to find an excuse.

"I should probably take a bit more of a margin for what was not giving me a lot of confidence, but yeah, that's how it is.

"I nearly crashed there a couple of laps earlier when I was on a slow lap. I nearly went straight into the barrier.

"This time I corrected too much and the car actually braked and turned in too well - as I say, I should take a bit more margin there and that's it."

Williams's delayed start to the season had created spare parts issues according to Kubica, and the Polish driver's qualifying crash was the team's second major accident of the Baku weekend - after Russell's chassis was written off on Friday by a loose manhole cover.

But Kubica believes Williams should not have a problem getting his car repaired for Sunday's race, saying: "There are definitely some things to change, but it looks like everything will be OK."

Heading into the Baku weekend, Kubica stressed the track was "brand new" for him because the simulator was not representative.

Asked by Autosport whether not getting a full Friday practice had contributed to his qualifying crash, he replied: "Lost practice didn't help obviously, but it's not like this contributed to my mistake in qualifying.

"Definitely, with a few more laps in the belt it would be easier but it's not like I made a mistake because of missing FP1."

Russell, starting from scratch on Saturday after the manhole cover debacle, trailed Kubica in final practice but was on course to outqualify his team-mate even before the Pole's crash.

"Today was quite mixed. FP3 was not a good session whatsoever, really struggling with confidence, lack of grip, just sliding all over the place, but we made some changes for qualifying and I was very pleased with my laps, they felt decent," Russell said.

"It's just a bit of a shame that as a team we're quite far from the pace, but I felt like I got the most out of the package."

Russell, who missed a number of track activities on Thursday due to illness, said he had a "horrific" lead-in to Baku.

"I'm feeling better," he explained. "Since Wednesday last week, it's been horrific.

"I slowly recovered and then when I woke up Thursday morning, just felt very weak and ill again.

"It was like this viral infection. One minute I was shivering, the next I was sweating, terribly sore throat, getting light-headed, and just feeling weak, no energy at all. It wasn't nice."