In the dying seconds of Q3, Carlos Sainz of Ferrari crashed out and couldn’t improve on his time. The Spaniard tried taking avoiding action in order to stay clear of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez. The Mexican went into the barriers at Portier and that brought out the red flag; ending the session.
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Carlos, in the process, also spun and crashed his F1-75 against Sergio’s RB18. Sainz was not too particularly happy about that, and his radio comments clearly showed his emotions. “Yeah I saw the yellow flag late, f**king Verstappen,” said Sainz to his engineer.
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A few seconds later, Sainz’s engineer, Riccardo Adami, asked if the car could be brought back. To this, the former McLaren driver replied, “Yeah depends on the hit of the left.”
After some seconds when the red flag was called out, Carlos gave another update, “I think I have puncture rear left so it’s better not to make it back. Have a look.”
So what happened to Sainz in the first place?
Speaking to the media after qualifying, Carlos Sainz explained how the incident unfolded. He said, “As I was entering Turn 7, on my left-hand side I saw a yellow flag coming out and immediately as I saw the yellow flag, I realised that the car in front of me had crashed and you don’t see where he has crashed, so you enter the corner without knowing where he’s going to be.”
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“So, I just hit the brakes, tried to do the corner radius as tight as possible and just as I was going to manage to avoid him, I hit the brakes harder and managed to clip him with the back of the car.”
The Spaniard concluded that while it was a shame to crash out, starting P2 is a good position. He indicated that with rain inbound for Sunday’s race, he believes the Scuderia are in a good position.
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Carlos Sainz might be in trouble with the stewards
That hasn’t been the only incident where Carlos has been involved during the weekend. On Saturday, Ferrari had been fined €25,000 and the driver was handed a reprimand.
As it turned out, Carlos Sainz had impeded Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll during the final hour of practice. According to the stewards, the team had given Sainz incorrect messages about the gaps to the cars behind him.
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Not just that, Carlos was also involved in impeding another Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel, approaching Casino Square. However, this second incident was not investigated.