Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz may have sealed another double-points haul for the Italian side with seventh at his home race in Barcelona on Sunday, but Carlos admitted that he was far from happy with the outcome.
It was another successful march towards the front for Scuderia Ferrari on Sunday as Charles Leclerc finished a stunning P4 – sparring with Valtteri Bottas at the start of the race – and Sainz a solid P7. But Ferrari’s new recruit said he could have achieved more, if not for a compromising first lap.
“Not very satisfied, to be honest, today. The car was better than the result. I felt like today, for the first time of the year, we were clearly the quickest car of the midfield but I got a poor, poor first lap. More than the first lap is that I was boxed in into Turn 1 and I couldn’t go anywhere. I guess I need to analyse what can I do better at the start to not lose the positions. Because from then on, we were fighting to get back. Overtaking was very difficult – possible – but very, very difficult, especially for us. We executed a good strategy, a good couple of pitstops and we managed to make it to P7. I felt like we left some points on the table.” – Carlos said, at the end of the race.
The former McLaren driver also battled with ex-team mate Lando Norris (below), who was warned with a black-and-white flag for weaving on track in his defence of P8 in the latter stages of the race. Sainz recalled that there were no hard feelings with Norris, even though they “nearly crashed”.
“From my side, it was a very close reaction to Norris’ movement. I think I nearly crashed into him, but we talked after the race and it’s all good. To be honest, black-and-white, whatever, I’m good with him.” – he concluded.
Carlos Sainz took P7 off Esteban Ocon soon after but explained why he could not overtake Daniel Ricciardo for P6 at the end.
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