Sainz was not allowed to pass Leclerc, they failed in his stop and he was left without a deserved podium: “I’m not happy”

Carlos Sainz had more rhythm than charles leclerc in the first batch of racing tires. Maybe because it has Monegasque DRS. Or not. It will never be known. He was 3rd behind the Monegasque, who was 2nd, with Verstappen starting his break. He was lapping 0″5 behind Charles and asked the team to let him “at least try” to go after Verstappen. But the answer was negative. The plan they had discussed before the race was maintained, which was “not attacking”. Ferrari prefers to play as a team and prioritize what’s ahead: maintain positions and come together in their goal. Sainz would have saved riding in clear air if he had passed Charles. He would not have overtaken Verstappen, in another world, but perhaps, if he had confirmed his theoretical best speed, those seconds he could have gained on the asphalt would have been useful in his fight for the podium, which is finally lost to Pérez.

What is clear is that by spinning close to Charles, his race was clearly conditioned by the double stop that Ferrari wanted to make on lap 14, with the ‘virtual Safety Car’ on track. The Italians didn’t vary their approach and from there, it was all uphill for Sainz.

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Double waste of time at the stop

At that stop, Sainz wasted time waiting for Charles first, in front of him. He lost 2 seconds more than he should have due to a bad stop by Leclerc and another 2 seconds due to a bad stop by his mechanic on his car. He got on the track with Norris and Hamilton, who stopped at a turn before. And with Pérez, who never stopped. On top, the ‘virtual’ period ends before his stop ends, something that will take him more seconds. It also took him a while to regain lost track spots (and greater stress on his tires). As a result, Sainz was forceful after the stop when he lamented the team’s decision to let him into the pits instead of letting him last his stint, with the good pace he was showing.

It became an excuse to take risks… and ended up being punished

He wanted to make up for the time lost in the stoppage by going full throttle on the track. There were a few laps where Leclerc was faster than Sainz in the second stint, but Carlos was faster again. Fly away. But because of this, he exceeded the limits of the track. For this reason, he received a 5-second penalty that left him off the podium. Everything is wrong. He was on pace to be 2nd, but finished 4th, with his teammate Charles in the position he should have been.

“Obviously, I’m not very happy. I think today there was a race pace for more than fourth position.”commented the Spaniard on ‘DAZN F1’.

“So, everything happened, especially after playing as a team in the first stint and holding behind Charles as we planned, and he did that with a first pit stop behind him and a ‘virtual safety car’ ending… that lost 6 or 7 seconds there, 3 positions that I had to overcome… on the way back that’s when I had the track limits, which eventually penalized me by 5 seconds… I don’t know“, complained the man from Madrid, where everything is against him.

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“The fact is that today I had a lot of pace, I was driving well, I made good overtaking, good defense, but the result is 4th, which is not what I expected,” he commented.

“We have to study it, to see what can be done differently. But obviously at the moment I’m not happy with how everything turned out. In the end, you see yourself with a lot of rhythm, you see that you play as a team and then it happens to you, you stay like, I don’t want to say with a stupid face, but with a very bitter feeling ”, added Carlos, who in the end was able to keep Pérez behind for more than two laps, something key for Leclerc to achieve second position: “There I was thinking more about my podium than obviously Charles, but it certainly helped this too”

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