F1 | Portuguese GP | Sainz: We could have been P4 or P5 ‘’with a normal race’’
He may have taken the lead on lap two, but the Spanish driver was ultimately left disappointed with a 6th place finish.
Carlos Sainz made a brilliant start to the Portuguese Grand Prix as he moved up from 7th on the grid to take the lead on lap two. The Spaniard took full advantage of starting on the soft tyres to launch himself past the Mercedes, thanks to the extra grip he had in greasy conditions.
He explained how working hard on tyre temperature on the formation lap was critical to taking the lead and making ‘’pretty easy’’ moves on the Mercedes drivers.
“Especially driving around them, it was pretty easy actually,” Sainz told Sky F1. “It was not actually a really tough battle or anything like that, it was just driving around them like they drive around us most of the time.”
“I put a lot of emphasis on the warm-up lap to try and make sure I got the tyres up to temperature,” he said. “Then you see a few cars here on the medium tyre, others on the soft, but I think those extra few degrees on the soft tyre and those extra degrees that I put on the formation lap gave me this good first lap.”
“I nearly crashed into him [Hamilton] there because he was braking so early, but I can just drive around the outside no problem,” he said.
“Now I see Valtteri, and I was expecting, because it was not raining any more, I was expecting him to pick up the pace. I don’t know, I was just super comfortable.
“Then I’m on top of him, and I try to show my nose to try and make him a bit nervous and look in the mirrors, and he misses a bit the apex. I think that showing a bit the nose got him looking in the mirrors and missing the apex, that got me into the lead.”
However, he quickly fell away as the Mercedes’, Verstappen, Leclerc and Gasly all overtook him as the first stint went on. The McLaren struggled with graining on the soft tyres.
A last lap overtake on Sergio Perez saw him finish in P6 when the chequered flag fell.
“Yeah, we’ve been struggling the last couple of races with the cooler temperatures,” he explained. “Our car tends to understeer a bit in mid-corner, and that damages the front left quite a lot.
“It has been a feature of our car recently, and we need to keep investigating why, because today, without the graining, after leading at the start, I think we could have at least finished P4, P5, with a normal race.”
🇵🇹Overtaking and leading at the start under the rain was exciting! Once the track dried the race became very tough, with graining on both compounds. Passing the Racing Point on the last lap made it a P6, so happy for that. Well fought race! On to Imola!
— Carlos Sainz (@Carlossainz55) October 25, 2020
👉https://t.co/2ixFhjdPkB pic.twitter.com/imP2Ou0DuT
