It was a complicated Q1 for the Haas drivers today in Zandvoort. Schumacher and Mazepin who finished the session P19 and 20 were involved in a “misunderstanding” that spoiled Sebastian Vettel´s lap fast lap when the German was trying to get his Aston Martin into Q2.

MotorLat had access to a brief online meeting with Nikita Mazepin where the young Russian explained what happened at the end of the session and talked about his frustration.

“We had a discussion in the team about what happened and I think after that after that discussion there´s one clear thing that´s left the system that I was told in Imola is not the case anymore and I´m not sure when it changed or how it changed so we need to find a system that works because I´m not gonna give in, he doesn’t want to give in so we need to find a ruling procedure we both need to apply to not when each one wants we need to find a procedure each driver has to apply to all the time. So, we´re a young team as everybody says so I think we will get better and improve and understand and come stronger form it”

About the relationship with his teammate Mazepin added: “I´m Russian and the way that I believe we are is very direct and I know my place in the team with our team boss and I´m more than happy to follow the rules because I think it´s very important to be a team and one day the rules will play for you and one day they´ll play against you but at least is consistent and you know where you stand what I don´t like is when people are cheeky fighting for p19 I think that shows your true nature and I don´t tolerate that and I will just remain being myself regardless of the outcome and I will listen to my team boss Guenther and do as I´m told until the last day of my F1 career which hopefully is very far away”

On what happened Nikita gave his point of view, “To be fair to Mick I was very upset because I was overtaken when I wasn´t supposed to be overtaken and then he backed me up into Vettel but he didn´t know Vettel was coming so it goes a little bit towards that direction he didn´t back me up on purpose but I, on the other hand, knew he was coming and I needed to get out of the way so I moved to the inside but it was Mick braking and making a gap to Latifi there was nowhere to go and you always going to end up in some sort of trouble when there are seven cars travelling at 30 kph and a fast car is arriving at 300. It´s been very stressful 20 minutes. I think we´ll come stronger from it”

Nikita added he was not aware of Mick receiving green light to overtake him at all. “We´ll analyse it and try to make sure we understand each other better.”

When asked by Motorlat if he had the chance to talk to Sebastian Vettel about the incident that cost the German dearly when he was trying to get to Q2, the Russian praised the Aston Martin´s driver “We´ve been in the Stewards room and Sebastian was a true gentleman in addressing the global issue of everybody slowing down in the last corner and I apologized to him and I said thank you for being honest and I was truly grateful for his behavior in that incident.”