SOCHI, Russia, Sept 26 — Sebastian Vettel climbed out unhurt from his Ferrari today after crashing heavily during the second part of qualifying for tomorrow’s Russian Grand Prix.

The session was red-flagged to a halt after the four-time champion’s shunt, leaving runaway championship leader Lewis Hamilton in a perilous 15th place with just over two minutes remaining.

Replays showed that the German driver, in his final season with Ferrari, clipped a kerb at Turn Four and lost control as he smacked into the barriers.

On his walk back to the pits he picked up a wing of his car that had fallen off and helpfully handed it back to the team of officials clearing his stricken car from the circuit.

"I lost (control) of the car on (turn) four, I was struggling in the first sector,” Vettel told Sky.

Once Q2 eventually resumed Hamilton managed to put in a lap to get through to the top 10 shoot-out with the fourth quickest time but missing from Q1 were both Ferraris with Vettel’s teammate Charles Leclerc knocked out in 11th place. — AFP