Untelevised Carlos Sainz footage emerges after Bahrain GP near miss

Untelevised footage from Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying has revealed the moment a stone appeared to shatter the onboard camera on Carlos Sainz’s Williams.

Sainz qualified 13th in Sepang on Saturday as Red Bull driver Max Verstappen set pole position.

Carlos Sainz onboard camera damaged by stone in Bahrain GP qualifying

Sainz was travelling behind another car on the back straight leading to the final corner in Malaysia when a loose stone appeared to strike the so-called T-cam attached to his Williams FW48.

A visible crack appeared on the footage from Sainz’s Williams, with the damage appearing to have worsened as he entered the pit lane.

The clip, which cannot be reproduced here due to broadcast rights restrictions, has circulated widely on social media since qualifying.

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As reported by PlanetF1.com after Friday practice, the track surface at Sepang has emerged as a talking point with a number of drivers voicing concerns.

Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari driver, described conditions as “very, very, very poor” after the opening day of running in Malaysia after large stones appeared on the tyres.

Speaking to PlanetF1.com and other media outlets after qualifying, Sainz defended the track surface by claiming that it adds character to the stand-in Bahrain Grand Prix venue.

However, he conceded that the track conditions are approaching the limit of what is acceptable by modern F1 standards.

Asked where he stands on the issue, he said: “I stand more on the fact that this kind of Tarmac gives character to the track.

“Nowadays, every time we resurface, the Tarmacs are such good quality that they all have the same feel and the same grip and the same deg as you’ve seen all year.

“So I feel like sometimes going to places like Bahrain, Malaysia with this kind of rougher, older tarmac gives a bit of character to the track.

“Is it too much? Maybe.

“I would resurface at some point, but it looks like here anyway, one or two years of ageing looks like it gives the track character.

“So it’s a tricky one to respond because this one is starting to get to the limit, but I prefer a tarmac with a with a bit of character.”

Asked how difficult it is to keep the car in the right operating window given the low-grip conditions at this circuit, he replied: “Very difficult.

“In the end, in a track like here with the heat, with the low-grip Tarmac, with the long corners, downforce is king.

“For tyre management, the best thing you can do is have more downforce, so I expect that tomorrow for us will be a long day, but at least we’re starting five positions ahead from where we would have started with a normal quali.

“So the good quali is putting us at least five positions ahead that we will maybe try and play around with the others on strategy and and track position, but tomorrow will be a long day, I think.”

Sainz went on to remark that 13th in qualifying was “as good as it gets” for Williams on a tricky weekend for the Grove-based team.

He explained: “Honestly, we’ve been having just a very difficult weekend like expected.

“Struggling to beat any car that was not a Cadillac this weekend, as you saw with Aston and Haas being clearly quicker than us in every practice session.

“So going into qualifying, I didn’t expect much, but already my first lap of Q1 was P11 I think.

“Then second lap, I managed to improve four tenths from that and get the car into Q2.

“And then another very solid lap in Q2, so honestly as good as it gets for us today.

“Probably the best laps of the season, even though they will not shine very much because it’s not a Q3 or nothing like that, but as good as it gets for us today.

“It hasn’t been an easy weekend setting up the car.

“We have all sorts of limitations this weekend with the long corners, downforce, speed, low-grip Tarmac.

“So all the all the weaknesses of the car come up and we struggle a lot all weekend.

“In the end, I found a baseline or a setup that more or less worked everywhere and I could do clean laps, some clean repetitive laps.

But we’re still sliding a lot more than others, so tomorrow will be a very tough day for us.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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