Carlos Sainz: “Everyone benefited from the Safety Car except me. But we will fight in Abu Dhabi”. A unlucky Sunday for Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz in Qatar.

A Sunday to forget
Carlos Sainz couldn’t smile at the end of the 2024 Qatar GP, even though his sixth-place finish helped keep Ferrari in contention for the Constructors’ Championship, which will now be decided next Sunday at the Abu Dhabi GP. Ferrari, thanks to Charles Leclerc’s second place and the penalty imposed on Lando Norris by the stewards, gained nine points on McLaren and will head into the decisive race trailing the papaya team by 21 points.

Carlos Sainz’s race in Lusail was extremely difficult: the Spaniard suffered a puncture caused by debris from Albon’s car mirror, which had previously been hit by another car. Additional issues arose during his pit stop, and in the final laps, Carlos Sainz was unable to get past the Alpine of Pierre Gasly ahead of him. Not even the deployment of the first Safety Car worked in his favor.

Carlos Sainz’s comments after the race
“Obviously, I’m not happy with what happened,” commented car #55 to Sky Sports F1. “In the end, I had to complete an entire lap with a puncture and lost a lot of seconds. Then I pitted, and we had a very slow stop, and just as I exited the pit lane, the Safety Car came out, so everyone else benefited from the Safety except me. Sometimes races go like this,” continued the Madrid native, who will experience his last weekend as a Ferrari driver in Abu Dhabi. “Today we were in a good position to score a lot of points, but everything happened, and it didn’t go well. Thank God nothing happened to Charles, and at least he was able to maximize today. That allows us to go to Abu Dhabi and fight. Of course, we’ll need a special race, with us scoring a lot of points and McLaren very few, but we’ll try, and we are in a good position.” – the Ferrari driver concluded at the end of the Qatar Grand Prix, which was held at the 5.419-kilometre Lusail International Circuit.