Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsToro Rosso

'Sore' Sainz plans on racing despite crash

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Carlos Sainz says his intention is to race in the Russian Grand Prix having been discharged from hospital following a heavy crash on Saturday.

The Toro Rosso driver crashed approaching Turn 13, hitting the wall on the outside of the track and continuing straight on in to the barrier. With the Tecpro barrier on top of his car, it took a while for Sainz to be removed but he was conscious and taken to the medical centre before being airlifted to hospital.

With scans showing him to be uninjured, Sainz was set to spend the night in hospital as a precaution but has since been discharged, with the FIA doctor to assess if he is fit to race in the morning. The Spaniard says he is hoping to be allowed to start on Sunday, but understands why he may be prevented from doing so.

“As you can see I am fine," Sainz said. "My back and my neck are just a bit sore from the accident, but I’m totally ready. Hopefully tomorrow I will wake up in a good shape and maybe I can try and race – this is definitely the intention!

"Obviously we need to be cautious... I’ve always been conscious. As soon as the accident happened I tried to talk to the team on the radio, but it wasn’t working and those must have been some scary moments… I’d like to thank everyone for their support, it’s really nice to receive all your messages at a moment like this one! I hope to see you all tomorrow out there!”

Team principal Franz Tost explained he felt a combination of factors had led to Sainz losing control braking for Turn 13.

"Just to clarify what happened, prior to the accident, Carlos had completed a long-run on the Option tyre, before changing to the Prime to do two further laps," Tost said. "On Primes the grip level is lower. In addition he had changed the brake shape on the steering wheel, which meant he had more braking rearwards. A combination of these two factors might have been the cause of the rears locking, which made the car uncontrollable.”

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AS IT HAPPENED: Russian Grand Prix qualifying

Gallery: Carlos Sainz's crash in FP3

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.