McLaren Racing’s Carlos Sainz had his second straight DNF in F1 Bahrain GP to start 2019 on a dismal note as he seemed not too happy after racing against Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.
After the Australian GP debacle, Sainz did well to qualify seventh for Bahrain GP and had a dream start to be sixth after clearing Haas’ Kevin Magnussen while in the chase of Verstappen. The Dutchman was already struggling like he did all-weekend.
Sainz was able to close in on him and almost passed Verstappen but for a collision in Turn 4. The Spaniard tried a move around the outside and got ahead of Verstappen in the approach to the corner when they touched while taking the corner.
An onboard from Verstappen showed the Dutchman not backing off as Sainz turned in to take the corner. Verstappen then rode over the kerb when they collided as Sainz came off worse with a puncture and a front wing damage too.
He eventually retired, with Verstappen unscathed in fourth. Post-race, Sainz was certainly angry but didn’t want to complain or lay blame on Verstappen for the ‘very-very hard racing’ as he understood the ‘heat of the moment’ scenario.
“I am not going to complain [after no further action from stewards] – lets leave it like that, especially in the heat of the moment,” he said. “I am still really angry about the whole situation as I had such a strong car.
“And after such a strong weekend, coming off with no points for the team, so you can imagine [the feeling]. I am not here to talk about the accidents and all that, I’ll just try to digest it and think about China, but it was very-very hard racing, I’ll say.”
Explaining his point of view of the incident, Sainz added: “I think everyone saw my start which was mega. I then had solid first few laps with a lot of pace and attacking the Red Bull in the front. I even felt faster than the Mercedes.
“I was targeting overtaking Max and see what I could do after that. I could run into Turn 2 and open the DRS as I arrived further ahead than Max into Turn 4. I attempted a move around the outside and received a really big hit from Max.
“I got the worst part of it with a puncture and I still can’t believe how that Red Bull didn’t get any damage from the massive hit that I received, so it is a bit unfortunate thing while racing hard – [maybe] a bit too hard.”
On the other hand, Verstappen was calm about the situation with the Dutchman putting it down to visibility as the issue rather than anyone’s fault. “He wanted to go around the outside and then he braked late like I did,” he said.
“I guess he thought I was not there anymore because with these cars, you can’t really see whats next to you, so he turned in and I was there, so we had a contact but I guess it is just visibility problem.” As mentioned before, the stewards took no further action.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Sainz as his teammate Lando Norris went on to score his first F1 points in style in sixth with the senior pro still to even finish a grand prix with McLaren.