Russian Grand Prix – Sainz: “A solid performance”
Carlos Sainz finishes on the podium after leading the first 12 laps of the 2021 Russian Grand Prix.
After a very good first place in qualifying yesterday, the Spaniard was leading the race at the second braking point and then led the first 12 laps of the race before being overtaken by Lando Norris and experiencing issues with his tires.
To start with, I had a good start by keeping the advantage over George (Russell) and then I managed to get the slipstream on Lando (Norris), which allowed me to overtake him on the outside in the second corner. Unfortunately, I then experienced graining (Editor’s note: pilling on the surface of the tires) and that’s when my race took a turn for the worse and I started to struggle a lot. We had to switch to hard tires very early on, so we had to manage them a lot and finally the rain arrived at the best possible moment because my hard tires were starting to give up. We switched to intermediates at the exact right time, which allowed us to recover the 3rd place. So, it was a very solid race overall.
This podium, which is also the fourth in Formula 1 for the Ferrari driver, allows him to move back ahead of his teammate Charles Leclerc in the drivers’ championship, now sitting in 6th place.
