Free Practice 3 – Russian GP – Huge crash for Sainz, Rosberg on top

The Russian Grand Prix experienced another highly disrupted session this morning with the terrible accident involving Carlos Sainz. The Toro Rosso driver hit the outer wall at the exit of turn 13, crashing directly into the wall of turn 14 at an impressive speed.

The FIA is not providing any images of the accident at this time, and concern is growing because the driver is unable to give any updates to his pit, as the electric circuit of the single-seater was cut under the force of the impact.

Finally, the image everyone was waiting for finally appears, and we can see Carlos Sainz being evacuated on a stretcher, thumb up, after an extraction that took several long minutes.

After only 35 minutes of the session, it was interrupted with Nico Rosberg’s anecdotal best time ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton.

Later in the morning, the Toro Rosso team communicated reassuring news about Sainz’s health condition through Franz Tost: « Carlos is conscious and is currently in the hospital. They haven’t examined him yet, and we still don’t know if he will be able to continue the weekend. He will come back and we’ll see. First of all, we want to see Carlos here with us and ask him, and then we’ll see. We don’t want to make him race if there is a risk related to the head. »

The cause of the accident is not yet known, the Austrian specified, however: « The car was lost during braking, but we don’t know why; we need to look at the data for that. It seems for now that nothing broke on the car, but we need to wait before being certain and examine the data. »

The complete results of FP3: