Sainz gives Toro Rosso work and will be penalized 20 places on the grid
Victim of a run-off in the middle of the first free practice session, Carlos Sainz destroyed his car against the barriers. However, his mechanics were able to repair his car for the second session, which was heavily disrupted by rain.
The rain once again disrupted the free practice sessions of the Japanese Grand Prix. Although the first session took place without a drop of rain impacting the hour and a half of running, the showers that preceded made the track, still waterlogged in places, treacherous.
Carlos Sainz learned the hard way during FP1 when he lost control of his Toro Rosso coming out of the hairpin, placing his wheels beyond the limit of the curbs: Sincerely, my accident in FP1 is really bad luck. I couldn’t predict what was going to happen. I just went a little beyond the curbs, which sent me into a spin, then into the barriers.
It was an early and dramatic exit for Carlos Sainz during FP1 at Suzuka 💥#JapaneseGP 🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/YdtTsmFDRQ
— Formula 1 (@F1) 6 octobre 2017
His car destroyed and the session halted by the red flag, the Spaniard’s mechanics had a lot to do between the two sessions to restore car number 55. But even though they succeeded, it was the heavy rain that fell on Suzuka that prevented the driver from racing. “I am happy that my mechanics managed to get the car ready for FP2. They did a fantastic job, as always. I hope tomorrow will be a better day,” concluded Sainz.
Despite everything, the Spaniard will be penalized 20 grid places on Sunday after changing several components of his engine before his accident.
On his side, Pierre Gasly remains frustrated with his lack of running for his second Grand Prix in Formula 1: “We didn’t do many laps in total and we didn’t even leave the garage during FP2 due to the weather conditions. However, we still have some data to analyze for tomorrow to improve our performance,” the Frenchman notes nonetheless.
