Carlos Sainz was left to rue what could have been as he crashed out of the Azerbaijan GP on the penultimate lap battling Sergio Pérez for P3, and there was even the possibility of finishing 2nd had that unfortunate incident not happened.
Once he cleared Norris and Albon following his only stop, the Spaniard managed his tyres extremely well and showed very good pace, closing down a 10s gap to the front group of Piastri, Leclerc and Pérez to get involved in the podium fight.
As his teammate’s tyres gave up, it became a 3-car fight for P2, resulting in that unfortunate crash with the Mexican out of turn 2.
Speaking in the written media zone, the 3-time race winner explained how his in-lap on mediums was very costly as the tyres were completely finished, and he believes he had the best race pace on the day.
Before the stop, he was 8.6s behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.
“I was very quick, honestly.
“I lost a lot of time at the pit stop and I had a very poor in-lap, I hit the cliff of the medium tyre, and it left me ten seconds behind.
“But I was the quickest out there today, and I think I was on for a second place. And yeah, that’s why it’s so disappointing to go home with zero points.
“So yeah, very strong pace, very strong race, so it’s extremely disappointing especially in a track that I’m normally on the slow side, today I was very quick. So, disappointing.”
The 30-year-old admitted after qualifying that this is one of his weaker circuits. Once he got into race rhythm on higher fuel, the Spaniard displayed very strong pace on the day, however.
“Yeah, from my side, I think what I struggled here is over one lap, I think once I get into a rhythm of the race I’m actually not that bad as I thought I was [laughs], and I can be quite quick, manage my tyres.
“And yeah, I was very strong out there today so you can imagine the disappointment.”
