Thanks to my engineers, as we had to guess a little bit where [the set-up] would be, but it all worked out very well.
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He said it was “difficult to say” whether it was a vehicle failure “but at the moment it looks like no”.
“Hopefully tomorrow I will wake up in good shape and maybe I can try to race”.
With Sainz unlikely to recover in time for the qualifying later in the day, STR will have only one driver left in the race.
At the last race in Japan, Rosberg also started on pole but was overtaken by Hamilton in the first two corners.
Now, just to clarify what happened, prior to the accident, Carlos had completed a long-run on the Option tire, before changing to the Prime to do two further laps.
Hamilton, 48 points clear of Rosberg in the championship standings, was second quickest with Valtteri Bottas a fine third for Williams. After Vettel took his Ferrari to a surprise victory in Singapore on 20 September – his third win in an otherwise Mercedes-dominated season – the normal pecking order resumed a week later in Japan with another untroubled Mercedes one-two result. “It’s a long, long way down to turn one, probably one of the longest ones of the whole year, so it should create opportunities”, he said.
Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel ended up 12th and 16th in their Ferraris, after heading out on track around 15 minutes in, much later than their rivals.
“The vehicle got lost under breaking but we have to find out what was the correct reason”.
“None of us like seeing a big accident”, said Button.
“It is not ideal and I think the crash I had in Monaco was better”, Verstappen said.
Carlos Sainz has been passed fit to take part in Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix following his high-speed crash during final practice on Saturday.
Despite being kept in hospital overnight, Sainz is keen to race on Sunday.
The FIA, the sport’s governing body, has confirmed Sainz was conscious after his accident, with TV pictures showing the 21-year-old giving the thumbs-up as he was stretchered away from the scene of an accident.
Tost said the fact the vehicle went under the barriers was worrying and others expressed safety concerns about the installation of the barriers and the way the auto had penetrated beneath them.
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It is just over a year since a heavy crash at the Japanese Grand Prix left French driver Jules Bianchi in a coma.
