Lewis Hamilton has crashed into a wall during the final practice round ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix.
Hamilton was unhurt after colliding with the barrier but his car suffered front suspension damage. The incident means that the seven-time world champion is now a doubt for Sunday's race.
The Mercedes team has just hours to carry out repairs ahead of qualifying on Saturday afternoon. Qualifying is scheduled to begin in Monaco at 3pm.
Hamilton apologised over the radio before leaving the car but was reassured by race engineer Pete Bonnington who told him: 'No worries, we'll sort it.'
Sky Sports pundit Anthony Davidson claimed that Hamilton had made a "rare mistake" in his assessment of the collision. He said: "He lost the rear on the way in. The rear massively stepped out. I wondered if he was going to spin the car. He caught the slide and then went in [to the barrier] with the front. It's a rare mistake from Lewis, I must say."
The session was abandoned prematurely after Hamilton lost control through the Mirabeau corner, with Hamilton ending the practice in eighth position - some way off leader Max Verstappen, who was seven tenths faster than his rival. Hamilton's Mercedes teammate George Russell finished in 11th.
Hamilton had expressed his disappointment that he was not closer to Verstappen after Mercedes had upgraded his car. Prior to the races in Monaco this weekend, Mercedes had revamped the front suspension on Hamilton's car which also included a new floor, cooling system and sidepod.
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Speaking after finishing sixth in a previous practice round, Hamilton said: “It is a shame we were not as close as I hoped we would be at the end of the session.
“In P1, I thought, ‘Wow, maybe we’re looking pretty good’, but in P2 we were close to half-a-second off. I don’t think we have half a second in the bag. We’ve just got to keep chipping away to see if we can squeeze any more juice out of the cup.”
Ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, Verstappen is currently at the summit of the drivers standings with 119 points. His Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, is just behind him with 105 points.
Hamilton is currently way back in fourth position with just 56 points.
