Sainz ‘trying not to lose my head’ over recent non-scores

Carlos Sainz is refusing to dwell on his recent run of non-scores, taking heart from breaking his points drought with a run to sixth place in Russia last weekend.

Sainz ran a perfect race to top the midfield for McLaren in Sochi, having run as high as fourth in the opening stages before ultimately losing out to the recovering Red Bull drivers.

The result came at the end of a three-race sequence without points for Sainz, who is currently the leading driver in the drivers’ championship who has not raced for the top three teams this year, sitting seventh, three points shy of Pierre Gasly in the standings.

Speaking after the race in Russia, Sainz said that while returning to the head of the midfield was a welcome result, he had refused to dwell too much on his failure to score points at the three previous races given it had been out of his control.

“It’s exactly the same situation. Mone of the zeros in the first half the season were really my fault, and none of these three consecutive zeros after the summer break were my fault,” Sainz said.

“So it was just a matter of one race, nothing happening, and being back to being best of the rest.

“That’s the patience that I’m having this year, trying not to lose my head too much with those zero - with that touch with Nico [Hulkenberg], with the pit stop in Monza when running in P6.

“It was just a matter of time again that it came back to us.”