Nicholas Latifi has divulged that he had an issue with the throttle on the formation lap ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, and that was the reason he ended up in the wall.
In wet, slippery conditions, the Safety Car took the drivers round two laps of iconic streets of Monaco before bringing them back into the pits due to an excess of standing water on the track but, during those laps, Latifi ended up in the wall at the Fairmont hairpin.
The Canadian was able to reverse out of the predicament but was forced to come into the pits for a change of front wing, and he now reveals that the car began accelerating on its own as he was trying to get the Williams turned in to the corner.
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“The throttle didn’t get stuck but it was like the throttle got stuck, I got drive all of a sudden once I started to turn. It was very, very strange,” said Latifi.
“Something went wrong there, I know I didn’t do anything wrong there.
“You are pretty much stopped in that corner anyway so that was obviously unfortunate because of the damage and then just being off-sequence before the start of the race.”
The 27-year-old had no concerns that the problem would recur during the race, but he conceded that it did come as quite the surprise.
“I know it wasn’t the throttle pedal itself,” added Latifi.
“But there was something that gave drive to the engine so whatever that was, I started to get some pushing from the engine.
“I wasn’t worried the pedal was going to do that again because it wasn’t the pedal in the first place.
“But it was very strange and surprising at the same time and I was kind of already going so slow there, I was just a passenger at that point – the car is driving forward and I am not on the gas so I don’t know what is happening here.”
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Latifi went on to finish the race in P15 after a lengthy battle towards the end of the race with Zhou Guanyu.
The Canadian has now gone 17 races without scoring a single point, and he is rooted to 21st and last in the Drivers’ Championship.