Carlos Sainz Jr felt “proud” and fulfilled after the Russian Grand Prix. He claimed it to be the best weekend with Ferrari since joining the F1 team for 2021.
The Spaniard recorded his third podium of the season at Sochi Autodrom. He finished third after heavy rain deprived Lando Norris of podium.
Perez worked tirelessly for the team this season and currently stand 8.5 points behind his team mate. He qualified on the 2nd place Russian GP, which helped him gain the lead at the start of the race.
“I think I managed to put a very strong weekend from practice, especially into Q3, and then a good start and good pace management in very tricky conditions,” Sainz said.
“I’m not going to lie. I’m proud of the weekend. I think the team has also done a very good job with all of the pitstop calls.
“Yesterday going onto the soft tyre at the right time, today going into taking the intermediates at the right time.
“Overall, I think it’s been my strongest weekend in Ferrari.”
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Sainz gained the leading position at Turn 2 of opening lap from Norris. But he struggled with tyre graining and had to pit before lap 15, which led to Norris regaining his position.
During the race, Sainz was conveyed that he was expected to finish on fifth place. It took him by surprise.
“After leading the race, you are at least confident that you are in the fight for the podium,” Sainz said.
“I didn’t exactly know where the others were at that point on-track. I knew I had done a pitstop, and I knew that I was not getting overcut by anyone. So the pace was decent.
“Maybe our simulations suggested that because everyone was going to put the medium at the end, we were going to be an easy prey for them. And we were most likely going to finish P5.”
Sainz managed to increase his pace and find himself on third place at podium helped by late rain. He also claimed that it “doesn’t taste as good” after losing two places.
“What we need to keep working on as a team is to make sure the next time I am in the position of leading a race, we make it stick and we win the race.
“We don’t suffer as much as we suffered with graining and we were not so vulnerable on the straights and all that,” Sainz said.
“[We need to] make sure we keep improving as a team to make it stick next time.”
