Carlos Sainz Jr airlifted to hospital after Russian GP FP3 crash

Sainz buried his Toro Rosso deep into the barriers at Turn 13, having seemingly lost control under braking for the corner.

The 21-year-old initially hit the concrete wall to his left, before becoming nothing more than a passenger as he hurtled across the run-off area and into the barrier.

After a few minutes, with Sainz being attended to by medics and marshals, the hour-long session was halted with 15 minutes remaining.

Several more minutes followed until Sainz was finally removed from his car, placed into an awaiting ambulance on a stretcher - giving a small wave and a thumbs-up - and on to the circuit medical centre.

With confirmation he was conscious and talking, Sainz was then flown on to a hospital for further medical checks.

An FIA spokesperson said: "The driver is conscious, he is OK.

"He has had a certain impact, he has been extricated, but the guy is OK.

"He talked to the doctors, so apparently we think he is fine.

"We need to see when he will be a little better, we will see what's going on, we need to see when the adrenalin is going down.

"He is conscious, he talks, and he even tried to remove his helmet on his own. So it's really good news.

"He talked to the doctor - this is the most important thing."

In a Toro Rosso statement, the team confirmed its driver "is perfectly conscious and was able to talk to the extrication team".

"Investigations on the reasons for the accident will take place once the car is back in the team's garage," it added.

Team principal Franz Tost, meanwhile, does not believe Sainz will compete in qualifying.

Tost told the BBC: "Difficult to say yet. First we must see in which condition he is, but I hardly believe he can do qualifying because we don't want to run the risk.

"To sit him in the car immediately seems a bit risky, but we will wait and see."

On the potential cause of the accident, Tost added: "We need cable data as it looks now that the car got lost under braking, but we must find out."