Hartley not giving up on points despite 'biggest impact' ever

Despite not turning a lap in qualifying, Toro Rosso's Brendon Hartley has been given the green light by the stewards to race in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix.

The Kiwi's day was a total write-off in all the meanings of the word, as his STR13 was destroyed in free practice in the morning, forcing him to sit out the afternoon qualifying session.

The Faenza-based team will likely be putting in an all-nighter to have his car ready for a race in which Hartley believes he can still salvage a point or two.

"It was quite a big impact, potentially the biggest impact I've had," Hartley said.

"We normally run a bit of kerb on the entry to Turn 9, but I took one or two centimetres too much and I just clipped the dirt area which flipped the car around pretty quick.

"It was definitely the biggest accident I've had in a long time. It happens in slow motion," he added.

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"I was going backwards towards the wall, so you don't really know when the impact is going to come.

"I'm looking in my mirror to know exactly when it was going to come. You brace yourself a bit, but it's never a lot of fun."

Beyond his bruised ego, the 28-year-old felt a bit sore all round although perfectly fit to race.

"A bit of muscle soreness. No concussion. But I can feel [pain] all through the traps and the neck," he said.

"I don’t know how many Gs I pulled, but you feel it a bit. I’ll feel it tomorrow, but I’m sure I’ll be fit enough to drive the race."

The massive mishap, and the fact that he'll be starting at the tail end of the field tomorrow, took nothing away from Hartley's hopes of scoring a top-10 finish tomorrow.

"The car was feeling good this morning, I didn’t have a clean run at the end of the session, so the lap time didn’t show the true pace we had," he said.

"I’ll try and stay positive. I’ll have a good sleep and come back tomorrow fresh, anything is possible.

"I know everyone is working very hard to get the car ready for tomorrow, which I'm confident it will be, then I'll be ready.

"I won't think about the crash too much, and I'll focus on moving forward in the race.

"I know the team started from the back of the grid last year and scored points, so that has to be the goal for tomorrow."

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