F1 | Shanghai: Aston Martin lodges a protest over Sainz's crash

Sainz went off the track at the last corner halfway through Q2 and triggered the red flag. However, the Ferrari driver managed to restart and complete a full lap to return to the pits.

With minimal damage, Ferrari managed to repair Sainz's car and get him back into qualifying, where he progressed to Q3 and took seventh place.

The FIA ​​announced that Aston Martin has lodged a protest against the qualifying results under Article 39.6 of the F1 Sporting Regulations, which states: “Any driver whose car stops on the track during the qualifying session or Qualifying Sprint will not be allowed to participate further in that session.”

Control messages from the FIA ​​stated that Sainz was stopped on the track during the red flag period, before he could restart his Ferrari and return to the pits.

The rule is in force to prevent drivers from receiving assistance from the marshals or recovery vehicles in order to re-enter the session under the red flag regime, but does not apply to the case in which a driver is able to continue under his own power .

Representatives from Aston Martin and Ferrari are due to meet FIA commissioners at 6pm local time. It is likely that he protested in an attempt to have Sainz's times deleted from Q3 and Q2, which would promote Lance Stroll to 10th on the grid and push the Ferrari driver down.

Speaking about the accident after qualifying, Sainz said: “It's very simple. I hit the inside curb, ended up a bit outside on the gravel and spun. It wasn't the ideal situation, especially in qualifying, but I think we recovered well.”

“I honestly did it a bit on purpose [a toccare il muro in quel modo]. When I saw that I was about to hit the wall, I tried to turn at an angle that would compromise the suspension and the rear wing less. Clearly it's difficult, but I managed to do it at the last moment and fortunately it allowed me to continue.”

“We did a good lap in Q2 to regain that momentum and also to regain some confidence. We had to change the front wing which behaved a little differently, so the behavior changed a little, each front wing has some differences and that didn't help. But we recovered well.”