Sainz suffers heavy crash, final practice abandoned

Saturday morning's final practice session for the Russian Grand Prix at Sochi Autodrom was abandoned shortly after the halfway mark following a heavy accident for Toro Rosso rookie Carlos Sainz Jr.

Sainz Jr.'s car lodged itself underneath the TecPro barriers at Turn 13, with tyre marks lining the concrete wall on the entry to the corner.

Replays showed Sainz Jr. losing control under braking for the corner, before he snapped into the wall and slid straight into the barriers.

As Sainz Jr. was taken away via stretcher and placed into the back of an ambulance, television pictures showed him giving the thumbs-up.

Having promptly red flagged the session, Race Control ultimately made the decision to cut short proceedings with 15 minutes remaining.

Prior to the crash, teams had been running split programmes – between the Super Soft and Soft tyres – to make up for Friday's lack of running.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg finished with the fastest time (1:38.561), ahead of Williams driver Valtteri Bottas and title-leading team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Force India pair Sergio Pérez and Nico Hülkenberg followed in fourth and sixth respectively, sandwiching Felipe Massa, who topped Friday's wet second session.

Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso put their McLaren-Hondas seventh and ninth, with the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado eighth, and Sauber rookie Felipe Nasr 10th.

Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel ended up 12th and 16th in their Ferraris, after heading out on track around 15 minutes in, much later than their rivals.