Carlos Sainz pulled Ferrari out of the fire. The Spaniard took fifth place and the fastest lap in Great Britain. Although he lacked the pace of the top three teams, Sainz stayed close, especially in mixed conditions. The Spaniard himself was very satisfied with the race. He couldn’t do better than fifth place, but he lacked Ferrari’s pace in Great Britain.
Carlos Sainz: I thought I could fight at the front
Sainz worked his way forward right from the start. The Ferrari driver caught up with Nico Hülkenberg and positioned himself at the front behind the first five cars. But then he fell back a bit in comparison. “I had a lonely race at the beginning. As expected, the top three cars drove away. But as soon as it got a bit wetter, I caught up,” said Sainz.
“I took a bit more of a risk than them. Then I thought: If it stays like this, we might be back in this race,” said Sainz.
Sainz falls back in the dry, but takes fastest race lap
But during the second rainy phase, Sainz fell back again. “We weren’t fast enough in the completely wet and completely dry conditions,” said Sainz. On lap 36, the Ferrari driver was already ten seconds behind Max Verstappen in front of him.
Oscar Piastri, who was hit hard by the McLaren strategy, also worked his way past Sainz again. “I’m very happy with the team because of all the right decisions we made. If we had been a bit faster, we would have had a chance of winning,” said Sainz.
But that opened up another option for Sainz. With two laps to go, the gap to Nico Hülkenberg was 26 seconds. Enough time for a pit stop, which Sainz promptly made to secure the fastest lap of the race. “I’m proud because I know it wasn’t easy today. That was one of my most solid races for Ferrari.”