Singapore Grand Prix – Carlos Sainz: « It was complicated today »
Slower than Perez and Leclerc in Singapore, Carlos Sainz had to settle for third place.
Starting in 4th position, Carlos Sainz showed great opportunism at the start by taking advantage of Lewis Hamilton’s bad start to move up to 3rd position. Although the Spaniard was just behind his teammate on the time sheet, the reality on the track was quite different for the driver number 55. Indeed, Sainz was one step below the leaders throughout the race. Instead of fighting for second place, the Ferrari driver was under pressure from Lewis Hamilton throughout the first part of the race. Then, towards the end of the race, it was Lando Norris who posed a threat in the rearview mirrors of the former McLaren driver.
It was complicated today. I couldn’t fight with the top two because I was struggling a bit with my rear wing. In these conditions, when your confidence level is not optimal, the goal is simply to bring the car home in third position. It’s good points for the constructor’s championship, but it’s a shame we didn’t win today.
The Ferrari driver also reflected on these very specific race conditions where certain parts of the circuit dried enough to use dry tires while others were still too wet:
It’s crazy how long it took for the track to dry. We kept doing laps but no dry line was appearing. We were still sliding a lot.
This third place still allows Carlos Sainz to get closer to George Russell in the driver’s championship. The Spaniard is now only 1 point away from the fourth position held by the British driver. This is Sainz’s 8th podium in 2022.
