Sato battles HANS pain

Sato injured his shoulder in the Bahrain Grand Prix, and has been struggling with it ever since.

"I picked [the injury] up in Bahrain when the gurney [on the rear wing] fell off - that pushed me over a big bump and there was a big vertical g-force," Sato told his official website. "That gives me trouble with the HANS Device, which is stopping the blood from circulating. With any muscular or soft tissue problem, ideally you would have to rest for a few weeks, but driving through the season is constantly damaging it.

"For this race I had to reduce the pressure by going one hole up on my seatbelt. It gives less pressure, but also less support. But what an unbelievable thing happened to me in Germany was the belt slipped off from the HANS device! It was causing me a lot of pain and restriction."

Sato blamed his mid-race spin, which lost him sixth position at the time, on the belt problem. He would eventually finish eighth.

"I tried to relax my belts and put it back to the HANS on the straight, but it was impossible and I then made it tighter than before because I needed extra support holding my body," said Sato. "I was shortly able to sort out this problem at the pitstop but after a few laps, all went wrong again. The HANS was pushing away, and because it's connected to the helmet by a strap, one time I couldn't turn my helmet and I couldn't see the apex."