The final practice at the Russian Grand Prix came to an abrupt end after Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz suffered a heavy crash over at Sochi.

Sainz seemed to be unhurt when the Toro Rosso driver was carted away on an ambulance, displaying a thumbs-up sign.

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Sainz went off track at turn 13 in the final session, hitting the barriers with only 22 minutes remaining. It was the final session ahead of the qualifying for the grand prix which takes place Sunday.

With the small amount of time left at the final practice, qualifying sessions were immediately red flagged to allow the removal of Sainz’ car from the barriers. The rest of the paddock was not allowed to return to the track as medical and race personnel attended to the Toro Rosso driver.

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Nico Rosberg remained atop the time sheets with a time of one-minute and 38.561 seconds with his Mercedes, while William’s Valtteri Bottas is not far behind, being only 0.726 seconds apart.

Lewis Hamilton trails his teammate Rosberg by 0.802 seconds.

Sainz seems to be fine despite the horrific crash, posting a message on Twitter that he was ok and that he is now thinking of how to convince doctors to allow him on the grid tomorrow.

There is still no official word on what made Sainz lose control, but his crew believed that it was not car failure.

With the incident, it is believed that the safety measures will once again be up in debate soon. Apparently the noses which were introduced after extensive research by the FIA, seem to have failed to address untoward accidents.

"The horrible thing is that he was stuck in the car with the barrier on top of him - very claustrophobic" says Christian Horner, Red Bull’s team principal, via BBC.

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