Sainz kept a bitter taste from his podium in Monaco in 2021 | F1only.fr
Although he finished on the second step of the podium in Monaco in 2021, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has bitter memories of his time in the Principality.
From the start of the weekend at the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix, the two Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were very fast in the narrow streets of the Principality at the wheel of their SF21, but on Saturday in qualifying, a mistake on the part of Monaco’s Charles Leclerc compromised his teammate’s chances of starting from pole position.
Indeed, in the last of the qualifying session, Charles Leclerc sent his car into the rail at the end of the pool, but the Monegasque still managed to keep his pole position signed a few seconds earlier. However, this crash prevented all the drivers behind him – including his teammate Sainz – from improving their time. The Spaniard was therefore classified “only” fourth on the starting grid, despite the fact that he was improving his sectors and was clearly aiming for a pole position.
The current Sunday, Charles Leclerc will ultimately not be able to take the start of the event due to a broken drive shaft in the grid-setting lap. [certainement une conséquence directe de son crash de la veille]. Carlos Sainz who knew then doomed to stay behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull on a track where overtaking is practically impossible. As a result, Sainz explained that it took a long time for him to overcome his anger at finishing second in the race behind Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.
“Monaco is the least pleasant podium of my career. I was really very angry on Sunday about what had happened with Charles and all that [le crash en qualifications]. “ Carlos Sainz said in an interview with DAZN, quoted by Marca.
“I remember that I didn’t get over the disappointment for three days, because it was my first chance to win a race and take pole. “
Despite this disappointment, Carlos Sainz finished the Monaco Grand Prix second, eight seconds behind Red Bull driver Max Verstappen. The Spaniard was 19 seconds ahead of his former McLaren teammate, Britain’s Lando Norris, at the finish line.