Sainz: First points for McLaren in Baku a ‘relief’

Carlos Sainz Jr admits it was a “relief” to finally open up his account for McLaren with his first points of the 2019 Formula 1 season at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Following back-to-back retirements in Australia and Bahrain, and a first-lap collision in China, the Spaniard finally got off the mark for McLaren at the fourth round of the season by converting a top ten starting position into an seventh-place finish in Baku.

“On a personal level this one is a bit of a relief,” Sainz said.

“After three races where I had the pace I had today, but just for a reason I still don’t understand three consecutive runs of bad luck happened to us. Today we didn’t have any issues and we just demonstrated what we are capable of doing.

“We had great pace all weekend really. It was a shame that I couldn’t use it yesterday in qualifying because of yellow flags, but today within eight laps I was back to where I wanted to be which was attacking the Force India in front.

“Since then we showed really good pace, we were managing the tyres to the end behind Lando [Norris] and [Sergio] Perez. That [Virtual] Safety Car gave Perez an extra half a second, second of lap time and we couldn’t pass him, but in general very happy.”

Lando Norris dropped behind teammate Sainz to eighth after making a pitstop in an attempt to put pressure on Perez ahead during a late Virtual Safety Car period. While the gamble did not pay off, Norris says he was left with no regrets.

“I’m happy,” he insisted. “As a team we didn’t win or lose points from where we were before the stop.

“We just wanted something to see if we could have a bigger advantage over Checo to get ahead as we didn’t have the straight line speed to pass him. It wasn’t a win or a loss in the end, just swapped positions basically. I’m happy with seventh and eighth, good points for the team.”

Asked who made the call, Norris said: “It was both. I boxed to overtake so if he boxed I wouldn’t have boxed, and vice versa.

“I could have easily said no I don’t think you’re right, or stay out, but just a chance to do something different, just something we tried, I believed in their decision.

“I agreed with it and boxed, so I’m fine with the decision. It was a team decision. It just didn’t work out how I wanted to.”