Carlos Sainz Jr. secured his first points of his season and of his McLaren F1 Team career in Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with the Spaniard finishing seventh after his first clean race of 2019.
Sainz had started ninth thanks to the penalties for both of the Alfa Romeo Racing drivers, Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Räikkönen, and with a free choice of starting tyre, with the twenty-four-year-old opting to start on the soft Pirelli compound.
The result put a smile on his face after being denied the opportunity on Saturday to make it into the top ten thanks due to yellow flags, and Sainz was pleased that McLaren were able to show solid pace throughout the entire fifty-one lap race.
“Happy to score good points today after yesterday’s setback with that yellow flag,” said Sainz. “I knew it was just a matter of time and having a clean race.
“Today we showed solid pace throughout the whole race.”
Sainz was pleased that the team were able to score points with both drivers for the first time in twelve months with Lando Norris finishing eighth, and he feels the team can now begin to aim to be even more ambitious with their targets in the upcoming races, starting with his home Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in two weeks time.
“Congratulations to everyone in the team for our first double-points finish of the year,” said the Spaniard. “Great effort from everyone. We need to keep pushing though, we have to be ambitious and aim higher!
“It’s a nice boost ahead of my home grand prix.”
