Carlos Sainz apologises to Ferrari for 'puzzling' Q2 crash

Hungarian Grand Prix

Sainz apologises to Ferrari for 'puzzling' Q2 crash

Sainz will start 15th in Hungary

Ewan Gale

Saturday 31 July 2021 20:00 Updated: 10:40

Carlos Sainz has levelled blame at a sudden gust of wind for his 'puzzling' crash that saw the Ferrari driver eliminated from Hungarian Grand Prix Q2.

Sainz was finishing his first flying lap of the second session when he lost control of the rear of his Ferrari at the final corner and spun into the barriers.

Overtaking is often at a premium in Hungary and starting 15th is far from ideal after the Spaniard was fourth-fastest in Q1.

"I am okay," confirmed Sainz when talking to Sky Sports F1 after the impact.

"I was honestly completely puzzled about it because in the end I cannot understand what I did wrong or what I did differently.

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"I went into the last corner slower than my previous lap and my Q1 run-one lap because it felt my tyres and the wind was a bit more different.

"So I went into the corner slower and somehow I still lost the car. I went with the engineers and had a good check and we found out that instead of having a 10kph tailwind, instead we had a 35kph gust which probably made me lose the rear.

"I am not used to making these mistakes so it hurts quite a lot to do them. I apologise to the team and I am not going to use the wind as an excuse. It is part of a learning process."

Sainz's Q1 lap "my strongest" as Ferrari driver

Ferrari had impressed in Q1 after failing to trouble the top 10 on Friday.

Although Charles Leclerc ended qualifying seventh, Sainz reflected: "This is the worst track to have this sort of issue and tomorrow will be a challenging day.

"Tonight, I will study with the team what we can do to recover as much ground as possible. It is unfortunate because my Q1 run one was so strong, it was one of my strongest laps as a Ferrari driver. So this problem, it hurts."