Sainz “can’t be disappointed” with “fun” recovery to P8 from last in F1 Turkey

Sainz was forced to start from the back row as he took an entirely new Ferrari power unit for this weekend.

Ferrari’s upgraded engine was on show as Sainz cut through the midfield with relative ease, seemingly making overtakes on a lap by lap basis.

His progress was thwarted when he got stuck behind Esteban Ocon for a handful of laps before a slow pit stop cost him any chance of beating Pierre Gasly or Lando Norris.

“I think it's not a day to have regrets or bad feelings,” Sainz said. “I think it has been a very positive day, and a day where I managed to go through the field with really good pace and doing some good overtaking minimising the damage of the engine penalty, which was the target.

“I had a lot of fun during the race, especially the first stint, when it was possible to overtake because there was not a clear dry line. And that's why I cannot be disappointed, you're always left with a feeling of what if , with the slow pitstop. Especially because it also cost us a lot of race time to be stuck behind Ocon for six or seven laps.

“Yeah, you always are left with the what if, but in general, to be honest if we forget it quickly and we will forget it quickly, we will understand because it's a day more to be happy than to be too disappointed.”

Sainz was one of the fastest cars on track in the closing laps, with only Valtteri Bottas bettering his best lap time.

Despite his impressive pace, Sainz stands by Ferrari’s decision to force him to serve an engine penalty in Turkey.

“No I wouldn't change the decision,” Sainz added. “I think it was the perfect race to take the penalty to then do a comeback, maybe, of course without the penalty with the old engine I would have been able to start more upfront and maybe a bit more in the mix, but in a long season you need to put everything into perspective and this is a development that is giving us a bit of performance as you see today. And there you can put it better because you are more performing engine.

“So I think the decision is taken correctly and we put it in as soon as we can, and it has given me also today the opportunity to make it back through the field, as you saw today I could overtake and this is also thanks to the good job that everyone is doing in Maranello with the new power unit.”