Carlos Sainz claims that he would have come home with a better result had Ferrari not forced him to make a pitstop before the final 10 laps.
Ferrari had a huge setback at Paul Ricard during the race when Charles Leclerc crashed and lost the race from the racing position. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz finished P5 from the P19 start.
An impressive result for any side, but Sainz thinks he could have done better if Ferrari had he not been compelled to call in for a pitstop. In the final 10 laps, Sainz came into the pit but was relegated to P9.
That was because he served his five-second penalty and Ferrari yet again had poor timing during the change of tyres. Though, from there he managed to jump up by four positions. But in his pit.
Also read: Carlos Sainz corrects his own race engineer after being misinformed on time penalty
Carlos Sainz had the fastest car on the grid
Sainz started the weekend with a new power unit. That’s why the Spaniard had the quickest car on the grid and helped him to jump by 14 positions overall.
His performance was noticed by the fans and gave him the driver of the day award. But surely, the result was not good enough for Ferrari in the championship
Red Bull now has a considerable lead in the standings as Max Verstappen won the race and Sergio Perez finished P4, giving Red Bull a total of 37 points from this race.
Meanwhile, Ferrari could only get Sainz’s points- 11. Leclerc’s crash gave him yet another DNF this season. A blow for him in the drivers’ championship standings.
Is it too late for Ferrari?
With only 10 more races to go, Ferrari would be needing most of them to win or Red Bull need some huge misfortune. Otherwise, this comprehensive lead doesn’t seem to go down so easily.
So, it can be said that Red Bull is on the verge of having one foot over the championship. It remains to be seen how the rest of the season will go ahead.
Also read: Max Verstappen checks on Charles Leclerc after 5-time race winner crashes out at French GP
