Carlos Sainz Jr ended a disappointing day for the Scuderia Toro Rosso team by joining his team-mate Daniil Kvyat into retirement with a similar suspension issue on his STR11.
The Spaniard was battling for a top ten finish at the Baku Street Circuit after a pre-race gearbox penalty saw him start down in eighteenth position, but pulled off the circuit at turn one to end his day.
Sainz will put this weekend behind him and concentrate now on the next round of the championship at the Red Bull Ring in two weeks time.
“It’s been a bit of a difficult weekend overall, and even though we were doing a good recovery in today’s race, unfortunately a suspension issue ended my race,” said Sainz. “It’s a shame, because I had positive feelings in the car and our strategy and pace was looking decent… But I know it will get better soon!
“As a driver, when this sort of thing happens, all you can do is forget about it quickly and work hard for the next race. We have to remember that we’ve had very good momentum from Barcelona up until now, so this little hiccup won’t disturb me: it was just an unproductive weekend.
“There wasn’t much more I could’ve done from my side today and I’m still happy with my season so far. I look forward to the next race in Austria.”
