Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz suffered from neck pain in Miami Grand Prix

A big crash on Friday during the second free practice session coupled with a lack of race distances under his belt left Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz suffering with neck pain in the Miami Grand Prix, which took place yesterday at the Miami International Autodrome

However, Carlos managed to successfully defend against a late challenge from Red Bull’s Sergio Perez to finish in third place and secure a double podium finish, on a day in which the Maranello team once again had no response to Max Verstappen’s pace. For Carlos Sainz, the Miami weekend started badly due to an incident in FP2 which prevented him from completing Ferrari’s testing programme at the Miami International Autodrome, but the Spaniard recovered with a strong qualifying performance, by finishing in second place, just behind his Maranello teammate. Unfortunately, Carlos was not able to keep Max Verstappen behind at the race start and was then left to fight the other Red Bull of Sergio Perez for the final step of the podium, which he did with a sore neck.

“I’ve been better.” – Carlos Sainz admitted after the race – “Obviously, after the crash from Friday I still had a bit of a neck pain going into the race, but I had to manage it and I fought through it.” – he added.

The Miami Grand Prix brought an end to Carlos Sainz’s two-race run for crashing on the first lap of a race, after being involved in such incidents at the Albert Park circuit in Australia and again at the Imola track. The Spaniard confirmed that those moments could also have also played a role in his sore neck due to the fact that his neck muscles had not completed a grand prix distance since late March.

“I wasn’t feeling 100 per cent,” he said, “but maybe also the fact that I haven’t done the last two races. So also, the neck feels that. And it’s a combination of those two things that maybe I was paying a bit the price and at some stages of the race I couldn’t push 100 per cent.” – he continued.

Carlos Sainz has now either finished on the podium or retired from all five races in the 2022 Formula 1 championship, after his season started with back-to-back top-three showings, it then slumped to back-to-back retirements in Australia and Italy.

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When asked if it was a ‘relief’ to be back on the podium, Carlos Sainz replied: “It’s not so much a relief – but it’s needed. I think I needed to complete a race distance, to get the body back to shape, and also get the feel for the car on used tyres, high fuel. I was still doing a couple of mistakes out there during the race, just because I was trying the car and trying myself out there. The important thing is that we got a full race in, but at some stages of the race I was pretty quick and also the battles and the feeling with the car in battle with Checo, you know what to do with the battery, with the tyres, I think it gave me a good understanding of what to do in the future.”

His duel with the Red Bull of Sergio Perez started after he lost a place to Max Verstappen on the first corner and lasted until the final lap. The Mexican took advantage of the virtual safety car period to change the tyres and seemed destined to take P3, but Carlos was able defend on his old hard tyres and secured third place in the Miami Grand Prix, scoring valuable points for Scuderia Ferrari: “I mean, on a new medium, against me on a on a very used hard, he had everything on the cards, you know, to pass me on, on the first two, three laps, in the warm-up phase of the tyre. And I was pretty sure that, once I got the tyres up to temperature, I could maybe stay, more or less, ahead. But yeah, I think we did a good job on defending, manage all the battery. They’re also pretty quick on the straight, which doesn’t help. I think it was a tough, tough defence, but it was good.” – the Ferrari driver concluded.