Carlos Sainz Jnr, Ferrari, Baku City Circuit, 2021

Tsunoda and Sainz explain double crash which ended qualifying

2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix

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Yuki Tsunoda and Carlos Sainz Jnr explained how they were both involved in separate crashes which brought an early end to today’s qualifying session.

The AlphaTauri driver was the first of the pair to hit the barrier at turn three during the final runs in Q3.

“I went too late in the braking and went into the wall,” he told Sky. “I got a lock-up in the late entry and there was no chance to make the corner and I went into the wall. It was a shame.”

Ferrari driver Sainz was following close behind and crashed while trying to avoid Tsunoda.

“I’m doing 330kph, I see the smoke and I don’t know if he has done the corner or if he has crashed,” said Sainz. “So I hit the brakes, hit them hard obviously to try and make the corner and then immediately I saw that he had crashed and I had to take avoiding action.”

Sainz had a similar experience in Monaco two weeks ago where his team mate Charles Leclerc crashed ahead of him, though on that occasion Sainz kept his car out of the barriers. “It’s not ideal, two consecutive races that the car directly in front of me crashes in Q3,” he admitted.

“This time maybe in Q3 run one I should have gone for a two, that gave obviously Charles that extra two-tenths in the straight to fight for pole. But I didn’t know that another red flag was coming again in Q3.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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12 comments on “Tsunoda and Sainz explain double crash which ended qualifying”

  1. I get it he had to brake to be sure.. But why returning tot the track with a total undrivable car. To be sure it would be a red flag?

    1. Tsunoda was already parked with a crashed car on racing line at the turn ahead, so the red flag was inevitable anyway.

    2. @erikje The red flag was already a given because of Tsunoda’s crash, so Sainz continuing didn’t make a difference.

    3. I’m guessing Sainz thought he didn’t have that much damage, but the team told him on the radio that the front wing was stuck underneath the car, and he stopped immediately.

    4. Sainz was sitting right in the middle of the run-off of a long, fast straight. He might have felt it was safer to move away from that position, though stopping in the middle of the road as he did is still a bit strange.

  2. Driver excuse for the weekend: « I locked up and crashed ».

    1. ian Stephens
      5th June 2021, 19:41

      That’s a reason, but not an excuse. Very honest of him.

    2. It’s a very bad excuse. From the onboards, all that Sainz could see before he locked up badly was a small puff of smoke.

      If he were truly worried about Tsunoda having crashed, he would have slowed completely and not tried to make the corner. He clearly locked up and still tried to make the corner before spinning. If you lock up that badly and give up, you go straight into the runoff.

  3. Turn 15 – another major example of stupidity in today’s formula 1. This is not a safe corner! Sainz could have run into the back of Tsunoda. What if someone was trailing Sainz and didn’t see Tsunoda. How can there be a blind corner in this day and age? These people the last number of years are just waiting for a bad accident to ruin their money pit!

    1. @jjfrazz
      This happened at turn 3 though….

      1. Lol I’m enjoying all these rants where someone else comes along and shows them they are ranting about the wrong thing :D

        Misunderstood rants are hilarious!

  4. A hopeless lie by Sainz as we all heard him describe what happened on the radio

Comments are closed.