Carlos Sainz misery continues with hard crash in Miami Grand Prix to bring out red flag

The Ferrari man lost control in the tight third sector, smashing into the wall and destroying the front left of his car. The Spaniard appeared to lose control on the exit of turn 14, loving the rear tyres before hitting the wall. 

He apologised to his team over the radio after the crash. The session was immediately red flagged with just over 15 minutes gone. 

Sainz was running fastest in FP2 at the time of the crash, ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc. However, he fell down the order as the session restarted with half an hour to go. The accident is Sainz’s fourth accident in the last three races as the Spaniard’s poor start to the season continues. 

READ MORE: Sainz using Real Madrid’s win vs Man City to inspire Ferrari form

He crashed out at the start of the Australian Grand Prix, throwing away a chance of securing a podium. This was followed by a crash during qualifying at Imola which saw him start lower down the grid on Saturday.

The Spaniard was also involved in a collision with Daniel Ricciardo at the start of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. The issues have left Sainz fifth in the drivers’ standings, almost 50 points behind his team-mate.

Just hours earlier, Sainz had claimed he needed to ‘strike back’ at Miami to get his season back on track. He said: “Imola was not good for me, because a mistake cost me my podium. Hopefully we can strike back here and win.”

Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto has defended Sainz, claiming he will get used to the pressure of being in a car able to challenge for wins and possibly the title.

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He said: “I think that’s a matter of managing the pressure. It is maybe the first time in his career he has got a car which is fast enough to compete for the best positions and he simply needs to get used to that.

“But he will do it very quickly because I know how smart and how capable he is to manage the pressure.”

F1 drivers had warned the last sector of the track could be difficult ahead of the weekend. AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda said: “It’s really tricky [and] different.

“Especially in sector three, it’s such tight corners. If a Safety Car happens I guess it’s going to be like a real traffic jam there because it’s super-tight. Even on a hot lap it’s still quite slow corners. So it’s going to be interesting to see.”