Carlos Sainz Jr. was disappointed to miss out on points in the Bahrain Grand Prix for a fourth consecutive season, with the Spaniard finishing eleventh on Sunday for the Renault Sport Formula One Team.
Sainz had started tenth but lost ground at the start thanks to some unexpected wheelspin, and although he was hoping to recover to score a top ten finish, his final stint saw him conserving both his tyres and fuel, meaning he ended up over six seconds behind tenth place finisher Esteban Ocon, and more than forty seconds behind team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, who finished sixth.
The Spaniard says being stuck in traffic for much of the afternoon left him with too much work to do to add to his points finish in Australia, but with the Chinese Grand Prix just a week away, he knows things can quickly turn around in Formula 1.
“I was surviving in the end there with very tired Soft tyres and having to do a lot of fuel saving,” said Sainz. “We need to analyse what happened at the start because I had too much wheel spin and from there onwards the race was compromised.
“I was stuck in traffic after both stops and we couldn’t really do a lot from there. It was a tough day to be honest, but luckily China is just around the corner and we will fight our way back to the points.”
