Carlos Sainz Jr finished the 2022 Belgian Grand Prix in third place, hanging on to the final podium spot after struggling to match the Oracle Red Bull Racing cars throughout the entirety of Sunday’s event. The Spaniard started the first race back after summer from pole position, after Max Verstappen was demoted to fourteenth as a result of a power unit penalty.
The Scuderia Ferrari driver was able to get a good start and avoid the early race drama between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso behind, before being caught by the Red Bull drivers of Sergio Pérez and Verstappen. Sainz struggled with his tyres towards the end of the race and looked to be under pressure from George Russell, but was able to hold on to take his seventh podium of the season.
“The car felt quite good today and we did our best, but our pace just wasn’t quick enough this weekend to hold on for the win,” said the number fifty-five driver.
“We ran a solid race from start to finish, with good pit stops and strategy calls, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Red Bulls behind, as they simply had more pace.
“Time to analyse and prepare the next week’s race at Zandvoort.”
Leclerc finishes sixth after unlucky race at Spa
Charles Leclerc was another driver that took a power unit penalty for the Belgian Grand Prix, and started alongside championship leader, Verstappen, in fifteenth place. The Monégasque had a good start, but was forced to pit early as a result of a tear-off visor strip getting caught in the brake ducts of his Ferrari car.
Leclerc pushed his way through the pack and was given the choice on his tyre compound for the second half of the race, with his engineer predicting a fifth place finish. Ferrari then pitted the number sixteen driver with just two laps to go in an attempt to steal the fastest lap from Verstappen.
Ferrari somewhat misjudged the pitstop as Alonso would pass Leclerc on the penultimate lap to take fifth place; however the Ferrari driver re-took the place on the final lap. This did, however, go to waste as not only did Leclerc fail to set the fastest lap, but he was handed a five-second penalty for speeding in the pit-lane, demoting him to sixth place.
“We started well, then on lap 3 we unfortunately had a tear-off in the brake duct that meant I had to pit when I was in P9. That set us back quite a bit. From that moment on, I knew that it was going to be a difficult race,” Leclerc explained.
“The feeling in the car was quite ok, but compared to our competitors we were lacking pace. They made a huge step leading up to this weekend and we have to work on closing the gap.”
Next weekend’s grand prix takes place at in the Netherlands – Verstappen’s home race that he won at last year. With the championship gap increasing more and more, Ferrari will be hoping for some smoother weekends in the coming weeks.
