Carlos Sainz goes crashing out of Q3 ๐ฅ๐ต #F1 #SingaporeGP
Carlos Sainz did not finish qualifying in Singapore as he crashed his Ferrari F1 car at the start of Q3. He explained what happened after the session.
Ferrari came to the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore as one of the favorites after a very strong performance in a similar street circuit in Baku.
While the team from Maranello seemed quite strong on Friday, Saturday did not go as planned. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz both made it into the final part of the qualifying, but they will have to start the race from P9 and P10, respectively.
The Monegasque driver had his lap deleted after running outside of the track limits in turn number 2, and Sainz didn't even put a lap in. He crashed during his launch on the start-finish straight as he was about to begin his flying lap.
Carlos Sainz goes crashing out of Q3 ๐ฅ๐ต #F1 #SingaporeGP
The 29-year-old F1 driver lost his rear as he went through the final corner, then overcorrected and slid into the barrier at the end of a very short run-off area outside turn number 17. He told F1TV after the race:
"A very strange one. I clearly overestimated the grip that I thought I would get from the cold tire. I had to do a lot of backing off to let some cars by."
"Launching the lap here, you never want to give up any lap time, and when I was launching the lap, I went over the bump in turn 17, and I just had zero grip compared to any other lap during the weekend, and I had a big moment."
The qualifying session at Singapore is one of the most important in the season, as it is quite difficult to overtake at this street track, so the Spaniard knew it would be a difficult race on Sunday. He apologized to his team and all the fans as he added:
"One moment, I thought I could save it, but then it snapped on me, and it was a very unfortunate, a very bad accident. Apologies to the team and everyone because it's not the way you want to finish the qualifying."
"But at the same time, this weekend, we've been struggling with the temperatures and getting the tires into the right window, and today was just one of those bad ones."
Following his crash, the Ferrari driver crossed the track to get into the pit lane (with the shortest route possible). However, the 29-year-old wasn't allowed to do so, as there were still some F1 cars on the track.
He was summoned to the stewards after the qualifying, and while they noted a red flag, the Spaniard might have caused a very dangerous situation.
As a result of breaching the rules, Sainz received a fine of "โฌ25,000, โฌ12,500 of which is suspended for the remainder of the 2024 season on condition that there is no further breach of a similar nature," as per an official document published on FIA's website.