Carlos Sainz was very angry. In Las Vegas, bad luck prevented him from competing for pole position and victory.and In the final race in Abu Dhabi, the Madrid driver experienced an unforgettable classification experience as he fought for fourth place in the Drivers’ World Championship against Fernando Alonso, Lando Norris and teammate Charles Leclerc..

The weekend didn’t go well. Had an accident in free practice 2 and finished 20th in free practice 3.. He lacked rhythm on the soft rubber but was confident of reaching Q3 in order to defend his better pace in the race. However, according to Carlos Sainz himself, the team’s strategy in Q1, which was a very close qualifying battle, hurt him.

The Spaniard complained that he was affected by being in front of Gasly and Mercedes at the beginning of the lap. Before “qualifying” started, everyone knew that the dirty air would have a big impact on everyone during the turns in sectors 1 and 3. With a tight grid where no mistakes were allowed, managing traffic in the final moments of Q1 was key. The team had to focus on that, but The Spaniard went out to make a last attempt where he was not helped.

“Have you ever complained about traffic jams? Yes, I think I was in real trouble. We left the box very late for the final run, which happened to be when everyone who was finishing their lap was starting my lap. And there was so much traffic that I couldn’t pass through the clean 1st and 2nd sectors. ”commented on “DAZN F1”.

“When things don’t go as planned…”

“In any case, we haven’t been fast all weekend and are struggling quite a bit with the soft tyres. We had more than enough pace today to get into Q3, but with such a tight grid things don’t go our way. When you’re not there, you’re outside.Furthermore, the Madrid driver was joint fourth overall with Alonso on 200 points, followed by Norris with 5 points and Leclerc with 12 points.

Sainz will start this Sunday from 16th, but to do so he will need to bounce back on a complex course where all his rivals are in the top 10. Leclerc will start second, Norris fifth (pending a possible sanction from Piastri) and Alonso seventh. A fourth place finish would be a nice finish to a good season for Carlos. Carlos outperformed Charles in many races and felt more comfortable in the car from the beginning of the course. His performance would be tarnished if he finished seventh.

“I’m going to overcome as much as I can in the race. Obviously things didn’t go well today, but the point is tomorrow. “As you can imagine, I’m very angry because I wish things could have gone better. Because I think I could have done it.” Carlos concluded knowing he would have to row against the current this Sunday.