The Spaniard saw his Audi roll upside down before landing on its roof six kilometres into Sta🃏ge 9 of the rally.

It did look like Sainz was forced to withdraw from the event before he sensationally ordered th𝓀e helicopter to return to the scene.

He and co-driver Lucas Cruz were unable to take part in th✅e rest of the rally due to the car being t🧜oo damaged.

"On my return to Madrid from the Dakar Rally, the back pain I suffered after the incident of 🐎this year’s event persisted longer than usual,” Sainz wrote on social med💝ia. “Following medical advice, I underwent further checks to assess in detail the extent of the injury.

"Unfortunately, the results haven’t b♓rought good news because I fractured the T5 and T6 vertebrae. The good thing is that boh vertebrae are stable and from this day on my priority will be to recover as soon as po☂ssible. Thank you all for the love and support I have received over the last days. I will keep you updated.”

It had been an up and dow♔n rally for Sainz up until that po♈int.

They won St🐼age 1 before suffering a 🐈mechanical failure in the third stage.

An incident in Stage 6 saw his tyre get ripped off, while he lost the Stage 8 win due to a speeding o🍰ffence.

Sainz Jr - who will compete in his third year with Ferrari in March when the new F1 2023 seasꩵon gets underway - wrote on Twi🍎tter: “Cheer up dad, you’ll be fighting in no time.”