Sainz unhurt after Russian GP crash

Sainz

Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz escaped unhurt from a nasty accident during practice for the Russian Grand Prix.

The Spaniard was taken to hospital in Sochi after smashing into barriers at Turn 13, approached at 200mph.
Sainz posted a tweet saying: "All OK. Nothing to worry about. Already thinking about how to convince the doctors to be on the grid tomorrow."
Nico Rosberg claimed pole position for Sunday's race ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton and Williams' Valtteri Bottas.
There was no immediate information on what had caused Sainz to lose control on one of the fastest parts of the track.

What happened?

Sainz's team said they did not yet know what had caused the accident, but initial indications were it was not a car failure.
The 21-year-old lost control and glanced the outside concrete barrier as he braked through the difficult kink before Turn 13.
The car glanced along the wall, leaving a series of tyre marks, before spearing straight across the run-off area and into the barriers.

Cleared to race - so far

On Saturday, race stewards granted Toro Rosso's request for Sainz to be allowed to race on Sunday despite him not setting a qualifying time.
There was no mention in the stewards' document about Sainz needing further medical checks in the morning before being cleared, but that would be standard practice in the circumstances.
The race is to start at 12:00 BST on Sunday in front of a sell-out crowd in the venue that hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko, who is in charge of the junior driver programme at the Toro Rosso team, told BBC Sport he was concerned the car had ended up under the plastic, water-filled Tecpro barriers.
BBC F1 co-commentator David Coulthard added the incident would again raise the debate about additional driver head-protection in F1.
Governing body the FIA is conducting tests into this area but has so far not yet found a solution that retains F1's open-cockpit nature while not raising other safety concerns.
Former Jordan, Jaguar and Stewart technical director Gary Anderson said he felt the accident raised concerns about the the lower noses that were introduced into F1 last year with the aim of improving safety.
Anderson said the accident underlined fears about cars 'submarining' under bodies they collide with, whether that be other cars or barriers, as a result of the lower noses.
However, the lower noses were introduced after extensive research by the FIA and with the aim of reducing the danger to drivers when a car's nose crashes side-on into the cockpit of another car, in a so-called T-bone accident.
By BBC Sports