Carlos Sainz had a dream start to the Italian GP as he got off the line quicker than Verstappen and managed to retain his lead out of Turn 2. The Spanish driver was aiming for a dream victory in front of the passionate Tifosi, but it wasn’t meant to be as he was overtaken by Verstappen after quite a few laps of intense battling. Following the race, as per a report by Motorsport.com, Sainz revealed the exact reason why he couldn’t hold on to the lead and had to concede to the Red Bull.
Sainz had claimed pole position on Saturday after a nail-biting finish to the third part of Qualifying. He had a good start to the race as well, and after successfully managing to fend off Verstappen for 15 laps, he finally got overtaken into the turn 4-5 chicane.
Sainz subsequently ran in P2 for quite some time before he lost his position to Sergio Perez on lap 46. From there on in, the Spaniard had to defend against his teammate and he successfully did so to come home in third place.
Carlos Sainz believed that he could win in Monza
It was quite evident that Sainz had a fast car for the weekend, and he explained that at one point in time, he even thought that a victory might be on the cards. As quoted by Motorsport.com, Sainz said, “Halfway through it [the first stint], I felt like I had it fairly under control.”
However, Sainz soon realized that his incessant defense against Verstappen had led to his tires degrading faster than they were supposed to. Sainz said, “Around lap 10 to 12 I started feeling the rear left tire giving up a lot, a lot earlier than I would have expected. At that point, I realized I had used my tires too much, probably to keep Max behind.”
He revealed that his left rear tire wore out much faster than it should have. Therefore he had to pit for the hard compound and after that, it was a long second stint. Sainz admitted that maybe he had pushed a bit harder than how much he should have.
Sainz nearly lost out on the podium
Despite hoping for a race win, Sainz seemed pretty content with a P3 finish. Even the P3 was in doubt at one point during the race as Charles Leclerc desperately tried to overtake him, but Sainz managed to hold on somehow.
The Spaniard said, “Obviously I’m very, very happy now because a P3 in Monza in front of the Tifosi is as good as it can get.” He explained that he had almost lost out on the podium due to pushing too hard at the start.
Surely, that was quite a show the Ferrari drivers put up. Now, as we’ve received a taste of what could be possible with the red cars being competitive, surely the Tifosi are hungry for more.
