Sainz criticises time taken to rescue him
Carlos Sainz has criticised the time taken to rescue him from his fire-engulfed Ferrari during a dramatic engine blow-up in yesterday’s Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg.
As Charles Leclerc claimed his first win in three months to revive his hopes of challenging Max Verstappen for the world championship – with the Dutchman second and Lewis Hamilton third – his team-mate Sainz was thrown into grave danger when a fire broke out at the back of his stalled car, with metal shards coming out of the exhaust, engine cover and sidepod gills.
Initially, the fire appeared at risk of overwhelming the Spaniard. After coming to a halt beyond the gravel, the car started rolling backwards down the hill at turn four, with the flames fanning towards his seat.
However, as marshals failed to stop the wheels with chocks, Sainz eventually won his battle with gravity, unstrapping his seatbelts and leaping from his blazing machine, but the rescue took at least 30 seconds.
He eventually scampered towards safety, with the car sliding backwards into the tyre barrier.
As he was taken to safety by medical staff, Sainz waved to the crowd, indicating he had escaped harm, and soon enough he was back in the Ferrari garage being consoled by his mechanics.
He later admitted he had had a lucky escape but he was angry about
the time he had spent in the burning car.
‘‘It was not an ideal or an easy situation for sure, because I could see in my mirrors that my car was catching fire,’’ said Sainz.
‘‘I was pressing the brake, but as soon as I tried to jump out, I didn’t want to leave the car completely free, out of control, and rolling backwards.
‘‘I was calling the marshals to come and help me, to put something on the tyres to stop the car from rolling. But the whole process was a bit slow and at some point there was so much fire that I had to get a move on and I had to jump out.’’