Mercedes’ surprising improvement leaves Carlos Sainz without a podium finish at home.
Carlos Sainz finished the Spanish Grand Prix in fifth place, a result that is far from what he himself expected starting from second position. Although it was clear that fighting Max Verstappen for victory would be an impossible task, Sainz has not even been able to stand up to the Mercedes
Both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, with surprising pace, were unattainable for Sainz who did not have enough pace to defend the position in which he had started, but neither to hold on to podium positions. In the final stretch of the test, Carlos was also overtaken by Sergio Pérez, who came back from eleventh place where he had started.
“More than fifth today was very complicated, and that I have given everything with the management of the tires to hold that podium,” said Sainz in an interview with DAZN F1 at the end of the race. “Both Mercedes and Red Bull were in another league today. Fifth doesn’t taste like much, I’m frustrated. When I get home tonight I know there wasn’t much else.”
For Carlos, the worst thing was not being able to celebrate a great result in front of the thousands of fans who this weekend have watched the Spanish Grand Prix from the stands of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya and who have traveled there from different places to support the Spanish pilots.
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“It frustrates me, because at home you want to show off, or at least defend yourself well, but today I couldn’t even do that. (It frustrates me) not having put on a show or fighting for that podium,” Carlos said. “I couldn’t treat the tire better and even so we have degraded a lot. The race has been long for me”.
Despite this feeling, Carlos’ fifth place is a good result, especially if we compare it with the eleventh of his teammate, Charles Leclerc, who has not scored any points in Spain after being forced to come back from the Pit-Lane after qualifying yesterday in a terrible nineteenth position and therefore being eliminated in Q1.
