After a strong third-place finish in the Sprint Race, Carlos Sainz endured a bit of bad luck as he experienced issues at the start and then moments later made contact with his former McLaren teammate Lando Norris on the opening lap of the São Paulo GP. 

On the team radio, Sainz stated that he was “squeezed” by Norris. After the race, the Spaniard discussed the incident with Sky Sports F1.

“I need to look into it because it’s a very fine line between who turns into who. Obviously the corner goes left and I was holding the inside,” he said.

“I don’t think I deliberately did anything against him. If anything, I felt he turned in a bit early into turn one and we tangled, but racing incidents, things that happen. Sorry to him if I did something wrong but to be honest I don’t think I did.”

“I did the same start as yesterday, the same procedure, but today for some reason I don’t understand.”

“We triggered a lot of wheelspin and we have to analyse what happened, whether it was something strange with the clutch or the tyre because it cost me the top-five finish that I was looking for.

“Even though these last two weekends I have been the quicker midfield car and very strong, just the two starts in Mexico and here have cost me a top five.”

While the unfortunate incident with Norris played a part in Sainz losing three-track positions in the race starting from third to ending in sixth place, the Ferrari driver later revealed there was a deeper issue at play with the car at the start of the race that cost him points as he fell behind his teammate Charles Leclerc and  Red Bull driver Sergio Perez. 

"I cannot be happy with today’s result as I think if I had made a clean getaway from the line it would probably have ended with P5,” he continued. 

“We need to keep digging into that to understand what was the cause, as we are lacking consistency off the line. I then had contact with Lando (Norris) and that ended up costing me positions to Checo (Perez) and Charles. From there, the pace was strong the entire race, but that was it.”

Despite the unknown issues causing the poor start to the race, Sainz believes there were plenty of positives from the race weekend. These included the car’s competitive pace throughout practice and qualifying along with securing valuable points for the constructors’ championship placing them in third with 31 and a half points ahead of the McLaren team.    

“There are a lot of positives to take away from this weekend. First of all the points that we were able to collect as a team to extend the lead over McLaren and secondly the good feeling with the car, the tyre management and the strong pace since Friday.” 

Although Sainz expressed some frustration with himself over the way the events unfolded on race day at the São Paulo GP, he keeps his fighting spirit alive heading into the final race of the triple-header in Qatar.    

“It’s just frustrating that I haven’t made the most of the last two races after eventful starts, but we’ll keep pushing! On to the final race of this triple-header."