F1 put on a surprisingly good show for Spanish fans, says Carlos Sainz
Fernando Alonso may have had a disappointing race in Spain, but Carlos Sainz gave the home crowd something to cheer by earning seventh for Toro Rosso.
Sainz said that the drivers as a whole had put on an unusually good show at a track that has seen many dull races.
“I think we saw today a race today that people are not used to seeing in Barcelona,” he noted. “Normally at the start here everyone disappears into the distance. Today we put on a good show, especially me, I was always pushing and trying to put on good moves to the cars in front. When I did my in-lap I looked at my crowd and they were pretty pumped up.”
After a frustrating qualifying Sainz, who had his own grandstand in Barcelona, finished eighth on the road – but a penalty for Pascal Wehrlein moved him up a spot.
“It was a bit chaotic at the start, as you saw. We managed to gain a couple of positions, but in Turn 2 I had to run wide to avoid the accident of the Ferrari and the Red Bull. We lost the positions we gained, but in the end we were P9, and from there on it was just a full-on attack race to try and recover. We managed, we finished P7 from P12, and I enjoyed it, we were the whole time faster than the car in front, never looking in the mirrors, and we managed to get there.”
Sainz said he could sense the support from the crowd: “It was amazing, especially because as you saw I was feeling it. I was I was pushing the whole time, attacking all the cars that I had in front, trying different ways of attacking in the pit lane, in Turn 1, in Turn 5, but it just didn’t work. Thanks to them we managed to do a good race weekend.”
