Scuderia Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has admitted that he let McLaren Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo overtake him by mistake in the opening lap at Circuit of the Americas in the 2021 United States Grand Prix on Saturday.
The Ferrari driver wanted to let Daniel Ricciardo’s team mate Lando Norris pass him after he overtook the McLaren driver off the track at turn 12. Carlos Sainz arrived at the corner in between the two McLaren drivers on the opening lap: he ran wide at the exit of the corner and rejoined alongside Norris. The pair went into turn 13 side-by-side where Carlos Sainz won the position.
But soon Carlos was aware that he had to give the place back to his opponent due to the fact that he had left the track. He tried to do this into turn 16, where he slowed down.
Yet Daniel Ricciardo in the other McLaren, who had passed Norris in the preceding corners, came through on the inside of Carlos Sainz instead.
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Carlos Sainz explained how the confusion arose. “I got a poor start off the line and this put me on the back foot,” he said. “So instead of being on the attack on the soft tyre I was defending from the McLarens. I actually managed to pass them back, then I went side-by-side with both of them into turn 12. I was in the middle. I think it was Lando who braked really late on the inside. We actually all three nearly took Charles [Leclerc] with us in the attempt to stay ahead of each other. Just to give a bit of space to Lando, I decided to go wide to make sure we don’t crash. When I rejoined the track I am ahead of Lando and Daniel in that order and exiting turn 15 I took the conscious decision to let what I thought was Lando by during turn 16 just to make sure that I didn’t get a penalty from the stewards. But what actually happened is during that battle Daniel overtook Lando. So I actually led by Daniel and not Lando because now Lando was the third of the group.” – he explained.
After six laps, Carlos Sainz was informed by the Maranello team that he should let Lando Norris past, after Ferrari discussed the situation with race control: while Carlos Sainz did not agree with the decision, he went along with it.
“The stewards still deemed that I should give the position back to Lando even though that would cost me two positions which would be in my opinion unfair,” he said. “But that was it really. I had to give the position back to Lando, then I overtook him and then I started chasing Daniel again.” – the Ferrari driver concluded.
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