Mystified Sainz had ‘no warning’ prior to Q2 crash

Carlos Sainz said his spin out of qualifying at Imola was something he was “not expecting at all”, given how he was driving at the time.

The Ferrari driver went off track after losing the rear of his car heading into the final left-hander at Imola, Rivazza 2, as he wound up for a flying lap – explaining that he “wasn’t pushing” into the corner, but he spun and skidded into the barrier nevertheless during Q2.

His accident brought out the second of five red flags during a heavily truncated qualifying session for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, but given the lap time he had already set by that point, it was good enough for him to start P10 heading into Saturday’s sprint qualifying race.

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The Spaniard admitted that he had “made a mistake that’s going to cost me a lot going into the weekend” in tricky changing conditions throughout qualifying, with the weather moving from wet to dry on several different occasions through Friday.

Agony for Sainz #ImolaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/6NtDKdsjdS

— Formula 1 (@F1) April 22, 2022

The 27-year-old spoke of his annoyance at being eliminated early.

“It’s frustrating, the target was to put a banker lap in knowing the rain would come,” Sainz told reporters afterwards.

“I wasn’t pushing really that hard at all. The car surprised me in that corner. It’s clear the track