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Sainz admits he has no explanation for FP1 crash

Carlos Sainz admitted he had no explanation for his accident in opening practice for the Japanese Grand Prix, but conceded it was his fault.

Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12 crashes

Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12 crashes

Sutton Images

The crashed car of Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12 in the garage after FP1 shwoing broken suspension and wheel tethers
The crashed car of Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12 in the garage after FP1
The crashed car of Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12 is recovered after FP1
Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso returns to the pits after crashing in FP1
Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12 with aero sensors
Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12
 Carlos Sainz Jr., Scuderia Toro Rosso

The Toro Rosso driver crashed heavily around 40 minutes into the session after losing control of his car exiting the hairpin, forcing a stoppage of several minutes while his car was recovered.

Despite the heavy damage, Sainz's car was ready for second practice, although he completed just one lap because of the poor track conditions.

"It was one of those accidents where you don't have an explanation," said Sainz. "It was a mistake from my side, for sure, and something I will obviously not like in the future to repeat.

"The mechanics fixed it in one and half, two hours. They did an amazing job because of that, and congratulations for that, it shows the commitment they have, and I really appreciate it."

The Spanish driver will start from the back of the grid after picking up a 20-place grid penalty after Toro Rosso introduced new Renault power unit elements.

"I knew a while ago, and I knew also my Saturday will be compromised because of that," Sainz said.

"I will have to try and save some tyres for the race, to have the fastest race possible, so tomorrow is a not a normal day for me in that regard, working on long run preparation, working towards the race, because it doesn't matter where I qualify, I will start last.

"So I will make sure I have all tyres available for Sunday. We haven't run a lot. P1 was tricky in terms of pace.

"I think we were pushing hard, but even if we were pushing hard, we were not very quick, so something to analyse for tomorrow, to see if we can find some pace. Anyway today it's very difficult to find conclusions."

Sainz said that the team had considered taking the penalty hit in Suzuka, but problems in the race in Malaysia made the change inevitable.

"We based it a bit on our last year's performance," he added. "We knew that Suzuka was probably our weakest track. Anyway we were forced to do it because of the issue we had in Malaysia.

"We realised that we didn't have any more parts to put in the car, so it was more or less forced, but anyway it was quite planned to take a penalty here, or a bit more forward. I'm pretty sure I will face some more penalties, unfortunately."

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Edition

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