Franz Tost was delighted to see Carlos Sainz Jr finished sixth in the Monaco Grand Prix after a competitive weekend for the Scuderia Toro Rosso outfit, although he was critical of Sergio Perez for ruining Daniil Kvyat’s afternoon.
Both drivers started inside the top ten, with Sainz particularly shining, holding off the challenge of Lewis Hamilton throughout the second half of the race, and Team Principal Tost feels the Spaniard deserved to finish so strongly in the principality.
“We had a very competitive package from the very start of the race weekend here in Monaco and our drivers have been showing a very good pace since Thursday,” said Tost.
“On Saturday, Carlos did a very strong qualifying, finishing in P6. Regarding Carlos, he did a fantastic job. He had a great start, defended his position well and performed a very competitive race.
“He resisted well against the pressure from Hamilton, without making any mistakes, and he definitely deserves this sixth place finish!”
Kvyat was running ninth heading into the final stages of the race, and had stayed out of trouble only for Sahara Force India F1 Team’s Perez to make an optimistic overtaking attempt into La Rascasse, which damaged the second STR12 and ended his afternoon, with Tost feeling it was not a place to make a pass and Kvyat was free of blame for the incident.
“Daniil, on the other hand, was a bit unlucky because of the yellow flag caused by [Stoffel] Vandoorne’s crash – this happened during Daniil’s fastest lap and therefore he had to slow down and qualified only P11,” said Tost. “In the end, he started the race from P9 because both McLaren’s got a penalty.
“Unfortunately, his start was not the best, losing two positions to [Nico] Hulkenberg and [Kevin] Magnussen. Later on, he had a competitive race and whenever he was in free air he did very competitive lap times.
“Unfortunately, his race was over because of a crash with Perez, which was, in my opinion, the Force India driver’s fault because you cannot overtake in that part of the track.”
Tost is happy that the eight points scored by Sainz ensured they remained in fifth place in the Constructors’ Championship heading into the Canadian Grand Prix next month, where he is hopeful the team can again show good pace.
“The team is still in fifth position in the Constructors’ Championship by scoring another eight points here – we have now a total of 29 and are nine ahead of Williams,” said Tost. “This is very positive and I’d like to thank everyone – the engineers for setting the cars up well and the mechanics for more fast and precise pit-stops!
“We will now focus our attention to the next race in Canada… Let’s see what we are capable of there.”
