Carlos Sainz Jr. expressed his happiness in taking eighth place at the Spanish Grand Prix, admitting that the McLaren F1 Team did not have the requisite pace for points.
Sainz Jr. continued his streak of scoring in every Spanish GP he’s taken part in during his Formula 1 career, holding off the squabbling Daniil Kvyat, Romain Grosjean and Alexander Albon in the late stages of the 66-lap race at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
“A good result on home soil,” beamed Sainz Jr.
“Congratulations to everyone in the team for getting a points finish today because it was not an easy race for us.
“It was one of those well-fought points finishes.
“We struggled for half the race but executed a good strategy, great pit-stops and I managed to do some good overtaking at the right moment to take our chances and finish eighth.”
The 24-year-old said that McLaren does not have a clear answer yet as to why it struggled to replicate the pace it has shown for most of the early season in 2019, adding that the final sector hurt both him and McLaren the most.
McLaren changed the front wing angle at one of the Spaniard’s two pit stops, which eased some of the performance ailments.
Sainz Jr. thanked his home crowd for willing him on, giving one of the biggest cheers of the day when he overtook Grosjean to end a feisty battle on lap 59.
“We need to analyse why the pace wasn’t there today and why I was struggling so much in the last sector,” Sainz Jr. added.
“But for the rest, it was one of those races that, thanks to the crowd and thanks to the help of the whole team, we managed to get into the points.
“Thank you to all the fans for the great support the whole weekend.”
