Carlos Sainz Jr cut a frustrated figure as he was unable to convert his top six starting position into a points finish during the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Scuderia Toro Rosso driver found himself racing with a damaged car almost from the start after being an unwilling victim of the start line incident that eliminated Nico Hülkenberg, but his afternoon completely unravelled when the stewards brought him into the pits to remove a piece of loose bodywork they felt was dangerous.
“I’m angry after today’s race, especially after having qualified in P6 yesterday,” said Sainz. “The race didn’t start well, as I had to avoid Max when the lights went out and, while doing that, a Force India suddenly came flying by and we collided.
“He took the worst part and I took the second worst part, damaging the right-hand side of my car. However, we still had decent pace after this and we were fighting for points, but we were forced to stop early as we were shown the black and orange flag and we re-joined the race behind too much traffic…
“Later on, halfway through the race, we had a problem with the Energy Recovery System and I had to run to the end trying to do the best I could.”
Sainz was frustrated that the chance of scoring points disappeared, especially after starting so high up the grid, but is looking to put this result to the back of his mind and return to points scoring form next time out in Malaysia.
“Days like today are very frustrating – nothing went right and when you have these kind of opportunities – starting P6 at a circuit like Singapore – you need to make sure you take them and today we didn’t,” said Sainz.
“But I stay positive: the level of performance we’ve shown this weekend has been amazing and points would’ve certainly been possible tonight. It’s time to look forward to the next two races in Malaysia and Japan, where hopefully we’ll achieve a better result than today.”