After winning the British Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz intended to improve the position of Ferrari in the fight against Red Bull in Austria. This time the Spaniard failed his part of the task – he did not reach the finish line. An attempt to cut Verstappen’s glasses ended in a fireball.

I had to jump out of a car in flames.

“Unpleasant outcome for the team”

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz raced to the finish line of the Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, perhaps already imagining how he would stand on the podium. On the 57th lap, the Spaniard really had real chances to compete for a place in the top three, but in the end he was not among the winners.

Charles Leclerc was the first to overcome the distance, Max Verstappen was the second, Lewis Hamilton closed the top three. As for Sainz, the hereditary racing driver from the Iberian Peninsula fled the race in an extreme environment. He had to jump out of the fireball.

“There was no information from the engine that this was about to happen. I am speechless as it is, of course, a serious loss of points and an unpleasant outcome for the whole team. I think that we could compete for first or second place. Today we were fast and the tire wear was extremely low,” Sainz said.

Photo: © HOCH ZWEI / HOCH ZWEI / Global Look Press

The Spanish pilot of Ferrari started the race from the third position, gaped a little at the start, but promptly regained the position won in qualifying. For most of the race, Sainz followed his teammate and Verstappen, occasionally letting Hamilton pass ahead.

After the first pit stop, Carlos lost two seconds to the Briton, after a while only Leclerc was ahead of the Spaniard. If it were not for force majeure, then Carlos could really push the Red Bull representative to third position, or even move his Ferrari partner.

Leclerc, however, did not plan to give up his position. Leading the main fight with Verstappen, he overtook the Dutchman on lap 53 for the third time in the race. Sainz also intended to leave the Red Bull driver behind. Having shown the best result on the circle, he got as close as possible to Max and went on the attack. The attack failed completely – the car could not stand it and caught fire.

Carlos was forced to jump out of the burning car. The race car driver coped with this task, although it was not without a slight panic. The stewards, too, seemed at a loss to help. One of them suddenly interrupted his run to the fireball, left the fire extinguisher and ran somewhere out of the frame.

Fortunately, they managed to cope with the task of extinguishing the fireball, the race car driver escaped with a slight fright, and his car, it seems, was saved. After the end of the race, Carlos was much more upset not by the very fact of getting into a critical situation, but by the consequences of this trouble. He complained that it was not possible to cut points for the Red Bull team and Verstappen personally. But it’s probably not worth worrying too much – there are still plenty of races ahead. More importantly, there were no serious consequences for Sainz’s health.