Sports Writing (EFE) .- The Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) left this Sunday, losing control of his car and having had an accident – without major physical consequences – in the first lap, of the Japanese Grand Prix, the ten -eighth in the World Formula 1, which takes place under the rainy Suzuka.
Following Sainz’s accident -before the hairpin, corresponding to the eleventh of 18 curves of the legendary Japanese track- and other incidents in which other drivers also lost control of their car -the Thai Alex Albon (Williams) It was also withdrawn-, the race direction decreed, in first instance, a safety car; before ordering the red flag (due to a crane entering the track), which interrupted a test that everyone had faced with the intermediate tire.
Sainz, 28, started third in a race in which the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull), outstanding leader of the World Championship, started on pole position and defended himself in a masterful and spectacular way. – outside the first corner – of the Monegasque attack Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), who started second.
The two will face the resumption of the race in these positions, while the Mexican Sergio Pérez -companion of ‘Mad Max’-, who started fourth and had passed the Spaniard of Ferrari, will do so from third place.
With the abandonment of Sainz, the Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine), the seven-time English world champion Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and the other Spaniard, the double Asturian world champion Fernando Alonso (Alpine), gain a place; that they will face the resumption of the test – scheduled for 2:50 p.m. local time, ten minutes to eight on the Spanish peninsula (05:50 GMT) – in that order, in the fourth to sixth positions.
Verstappen leads the World Cup with an advantage of 104 points over Leclerc and 106 over “Checo” and could mathematically solve the revalidation of the title this Sunday. There are different combinations, but the easiest to remember is for the Dutchman to win with the fastest lap; or that he wins and the Monegasque does not come second.
Sainz: It’s a pure coincidence that they didn’t hit me, you can’t see anything
Spaniard Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), who had started third and had to leave, after crashing on the first lap of the Japanese Grand Prix, the eighteenth of the Formula 1 World Championship -interrupted, with a flag red, in the Suzuka-rain, said that “if you don’t see anything, you’re telling fate to do what it thinks” and that it was “pure luck they didn’t have it”” given”.
“I don’t know what they want to do, but the track and the visibility (zero) was impassable,” said Sainz, 28, who just finished third in Singapore and was fifth in the World Championship before the race. .
“It’s clear that if the pilots don’t see anything, you’re telling fate to do whatever comes into their heads, on a day like today; because the 18 pilots who were behind me did not even see me”, he declared this Sunday, in Suzuka, to the television channel Dazn, the Spaniard of Ferrari.
“It’s a pure coincidence that they didn’t touch me,” said Sainz, who won his first F1 victory this season, winning the British Grand Prix at the legendary Silverstone (England).
“The thing is on the edge and I hope they make the right decision,” said the Spaniard of Ferrari, who has been on the premier class podium fourteen times, eight of them this season.
Web edition: Rosa Corona