The Spaniard, who placed only half a tenth behind teammate Charles Leclerc, qualified for the race in Las Vegas in second position. Unfortunately because of his grid penalty due to using the new energy store Ferrari had to utilize as part of a complete power unit modification after the unusual FP1 incident, he was forced to start 12th.
During the first practice session at the newly constructed Las Vegas Street Circuit, Carlos Sainz ran over a metal water valve inspection cover, severely damaging the seat, floor, power unit and battery of his SF-23.
Photo Credit: Scuderia Ferrari
Even though the racing officials agreed that the damage was brought on by an extremely unusual circumstance, there was no option but to penalise the Spaniard due to the rules.
“I just expected more from the sport in this case,” Sainz said on the decision.
Regardless of the fact that he, along with a few of the other drivers during the race, had to contend with a variety of issues, the Ferrari driver was still able to cross the finish line in the points.
Despite dropping to 17th position early doors, the Spaniard made a remarkable recovery to move up to sixth.
When the Spaniard lost control of his vehicle at the first turn, collided with Lewis Hamilton and spun, he fell to 17th place and was ended his hopes of trying to fight his way up to the podium.
“Obviously regretting not being able to be up there fighting for the win,” said Sainz.
“It looked like this weekend the car was at least able to do a podium. It would’ve been a fun race.”
On the start-finish straight, before the race started at all, three of the parade cars had broken down to varying degrees, leaking floods of oil onto the grid slots on the left-hand side.
The 2-time Grand Prix winner thinks that the oil that a parade lap vehicle spilled on the track caused the chaos of the first lap at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
“I saw a lot of oil from the cars that we used to do the drivers’ parade, which is another thing for the FIA to look at, because I think that it’s not fair,” Sainz said.
“All the oil was on the inside line, apart from the dirty track already being there, in front of all that we put cars that are leaking oil into the track one hour before the race, it is, again, unacceptable.
“That probably caused a lot of the crashes into Turn 1.”
