Carlos Sainz is satisfied with his tenth place finish in the Russian Grand Prix after he arrived in Sochi with a three-place grid penalty for a previous incident.
The Spaniard was thrilled with how the entire race went, and extended his delight to the entire team’s performance.
“What a tough race, especially as we were starting from behind because of the grid penalty…,” he said. “But today we got everything right: the start, the first lap, the pit-stop, the strategy… So we can be happy!”
Sainz considers tenth to have been the best attainable place considering the circumstances they found themselves in.
In the end he found himself almost pocketed from the rest of field, with his concentration focused entirely on maintaining the gap to eleventh place Lance Stroll.
“We did a good race and recovered well from P14 to P10, which I think was the maximum we could do this weekend,” he continued. “After the pit-stop it was a bit of a lonely race for me and I just had to control the gap to Stroll, which we managed to do well.”
The Scuderia Toro Rosso is excited to be returning home for the Spanish Grand Prix, where he has even been honoured with his own grandstand.
No one can accuse the Spanish of being restrained in their support, so we can expect an overt display of appreciation strengthened with flags, placards and cheers for both Sainz and Fernando Alonso.
“I must say that now I’m really looking forward to the next race in Barcelona –it’s a track where I’ve always performed very well and to race in front of my home crowd is always very special,” he added.
“I also have my own grandstand there, so a lot of people will be coming to support me and this will surely be one of the highlights of the weekend.”
