Carlos Sainz started the 2022 season strongly with a P2 in Bahrain and P3 finish in Saudi Arabia . However two consecutive DNF in the last two races in Australia and Imola had put extra pressure on the Spaniard .Charles Leclerc had admitted before that he was “still not 100% happy with the car” .
After the disappointing couple of weeks , Carlos Sainz bounced back to finish P3 in Miami Grand Prix .
“I think it was exactly what I needed, a clean race. No issues, decent start for starting on the right-hand side; there was zero grip out there on the right side but I did a clean race,” he said. “I think I managed to learn quite a lot from the car, managed to complete a race distance that I hadn’t done two races in a row, so it was important.
“It’s not so much a relief – but it’s needed. I think I needed to complete a race distance, to get the body back to shape, and also get the feel for the car on used tyres, high fuel.”
“I was still doing a couple of mistakes out there during the race, just because I was trying the car and trying myself out there.
“The important thing is that we got a full race in, but at some stages of the race I was pretty quick, and also the battles and the feeling with the car in battle with Checo, you know what to do with the battery, with the tyres – I think it gave me a good understanding of what to do in the future,” he explained.
The crash in FP2 (Miami Grand Prix ) has left Sainz a bit sore and he was not feeling 100% good during the race .
“Obviously, I’m coming back from a pretty heavy crash on Friday. So, I wasn’t feeling 100 percent today, but maybe also the fact that I haven’t done the last two races. So also, the neck feels that.
“And it’s a combination of those two things that maybe I was paying a bit the price and at some stages of the race I couldn’t push 100 percent.”
The Spaniard’s next assignment will be in his home Grand Prix , Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on Sunday, May 22 .
