Carlos Sainz Jr picked up another four points for Scuderia Toro Rosso’s point tally, bringing his Renault-powered machine home in eighth after a first lap near-miss with his own team-mate Daniil Kvyat.
Sainz sent himself into a reactionary spin, worried that Kvyat was about to come across his path after the Russian’s own mistake at the race start, which sent him to the back for the opening lap.
“What a crazy race!” he exclaimed. “The start to it was already difficult: when I got to Turn 1 I saw Daniil rejoining the track and I had to quickly avoid crashing into him, which would’ve been a disaster for the team! I span, but it was a sacrifice I had to do.”
It didn’t take long to make upwards progress however, aided firstly by Valtteri Bottas going a lap down for repairs, followed by a multitude of problems for other cars up and down the field – including his team-mate Kvyat – allowing him to slowly work his way back up the order.
He was glad to have benefited so greatly from the relatively high attrition rate, and admitted he was struggling to make sense of it all while making his comeback drive.
“I kept calm, was very patient, and we recovered from last to eighth without making any mistakes. I have to say it was difficult to keep focused with so many things happening: Safety Cars, the red flag… And I can say I’m satisfied with today’s result in the end!”
The four points he collected for his team were not sufficient to hold fifth in the constructors’ standings however, with Lance Stroll‘s podium for Williams causing a net loss of 11 points to the British team, sending them down to sixth place on 33 points.
