The FIA took the decision not to restart the session as marshals and medics continued to attend to Sainz, while there were initially no replays of the shunt.
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The Toro Rosso team issued a statement saying: “Following Carlos Sainz’s accident during FP3 today in Sochi, the driver is perfectly conscious and was able to talk to the extrication team”.
“First of all it’s important to know Carlos is fine and it would be great to have him with us tomorrow, but after such a big impact he has to be patient”, Vettel said. We found a good balance on my auto, thanks to my engineers as well.
“I think the barriers should be more fixed or whatever. I don’t have an answer for it”.
The qualifying was still a ideal result for Mercedes and kept the team on course to clinch their second successive constructors’ title.
“It was just the radio that was not working, that’s why everything was so tense, hectic at that moment”.
Nico Rosberg will start from pole position for Sunday’s Russian Grand Prix after edging out Lewis Hamilton in qualifying. Hamilton went on to take the win.
Separately, stewards agreed to a team request to allow Sainz to race providing he was passed fit. Vettel is fourth on the grid with his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in fifth.
“The idea is for the barriers not to come on top of you or the auto to be going under the barriers”.
Indeed, Sainz’s manager Borja Ortiz-Echague said the 21-year-old was determined to keep his booking for dinner with fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso.
A heavy crash for Carlos Sainz Jr. ended the final practice session at the Russian Grand Prix on Saturday with the Toro Rosso driver taken from the track in an ambulance for medical treatment.
“The first thing I did when I got to the hospital was look at the crash to see what exactly happened, even though I could remember what had happened”, he said.
Sainz’s auto was buried deep into the barriers after he lost control at Turn 13 at the end of a long straight.
He hit the nearside wall before ploughing through a Tecpro barrier, created to absorb high-speed crashes.
“After Max’s accident in Monaco, compared to Carlos’s accident today, it’s very different the way the barriers work and that’s something we need to understand”.
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“Apparently it’s not good, not ideal, so let’s see if we can make progress on that”, he said.
