"As a team we take full responsibility for it," says Laurent Mekies after Max Verstappen crashes out of qualifying.

Having just gone quickest in S2, despite a relatively weak opening sector, Verstappen lost the rear of his car as he turned into the infamous Turn 9.

"In T9 there was a big loss of rear end grip and the car spun out at high speed," explained the Dutchman. "I had an uncontrollable spin and the wheel fully locked.

"We lost aero performance due to some damage on the rear of the car, which caused the issue," he added. "The car spun off and the situation was out of my hands unfortunately."

As the Dutchman looked to get out of his car, Gianpiero Lambiase told him: "I will check the rear wing, maybe a delay on the rear wing."

Just ahead of the corner there is a straight-line zone, which begins 10 metres after Turn 8, however it was subsequently shown that the rear wing had fully closed at the time of the incident.

"The dynamic of the incident was quite unusual," team boss Laurent Mekies subsequently told reporters. "We lost aero performance on the rear of the car and it gave Max no chance to survive.

"As a team we take full responsibility for it and apologise to him," he added.

Verstappen later admitted that pole was never likely but he thought third was a possibility.

Once again the Austrian team has brought a raft of upgrades, but the opening day of the weekend saw it plagued with issues in terms of the power unit and a lack of balance.

"With any significant upgrade, it is never simply a case of plug-and-play," said Mekies. "The real challenge is to understand the package, identify its optimum operating window and maximise its potential over the course of the weekend.

"We are still learning but today was an encouraging first step. The improved pace we had demonstrated the progress we have made with the package we have brought to Austria."