Nikita Mazepin explains an unusual reason for an early pit stop at the United States Grand Prix

Nikita Mazepin made an unplanned early pit stop at the United States Grand Prix after a loose headrest obstructed his vision.

Under normal circumstances, the Haas driver would have had the chance to run multiple cars behind him after starting in front of a trio serving engine penalties while Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi clashed and lost ground on the first lap.

But instead of dueling in the lower midfield, Mazepin had to pit for corrective action because of a problem with his headrest.

The Formula 1 website told him that it had been a busy race on the Circuit of The Americas, the Moscow-born driver replied: “Unfortunately not very busy [for me] because the headrest in my car came off at Turn 2 and it did two things.

“At first it was a pretty sketchy first lap because it lifted the back of the headrest and blocked both the left and right mirrors. I had to ask the team if there were people around me and hoped no one was there because I just didn’t know where to report or not.

“And the second was that it obviously adds over 25 seconds of race time for an unnecessary pit stop, which made it pretty difficult from then on because I was driving alone trying to make a pit stop a success.

“But at these temperatures and with these tires that was simply not possible.”

An unfortunate start to @nikita_mazepin’s afternoon hampered his # USGP # HaasF1 #USGP pic.twitter.com/3ndqC9pKgq

– Haas F1-Team (@ HaasF1Team) October 24, 2021

Haas team boss Günther Steiner said the problem was easy to fix and Mazepin would have been threatened with a black flag if action had not been taken quickly.

“There are two pins on the back [of the headrest] who weren’t quite committed, ”said Steiner, quoted by Motorsport Week.

“So we didn’t have to remove the headrest [at the pit-stop], only [push it] down and in.

“You have to come into the boxes [or] otherwise it is a black flag for security reasons. We called him immediately. “

Mazepin finished 17th and last of the still running places, one place behind his teammate Mick Schumacher, the duo being the only drivers to be lapped twice by winner Max Verstappen.

Haas has five more races left this season to score points in the championship points table. Her highest result so far was Schumacher’s P12 at the Hungarian Grand Prix.