Doomed to start penultimate after several changes to his power unit, Carlos Sainz had to come back this Sunday in France to reach the front of the grid, where he belonged for pace.
The man from Madrid made numerous overtaking moves, 15, choosing different areas of the track to leave his rivals behind, but the one that caught the most attention was the one he hit Sergio Pérez on lap 42, 11 from the end.
It came after a talk between the Spanish driver and the Ferrari wall about whether to go in to change tires or try to reach the finish line with that media game that nobody knows if they would last that long. After being told by his engineer that the Red Bulls probably wouldn’t have to pit again, Sainz quickly calculated that if he did go in, he wouldn’t have time to fight for the podium again.
In fact, he had a five-second penalty for an unsafe release at the stop during the Safety Car that caused Leclerc’s accident, so the ballast was greater. Either he met them in the pits if he made the second pitstop, or they would be added to his final race time. With blood in his eyes, Sainz went all out, and began the attack on Pérez.
He launched himself out of the penultimate corner, even matching the Mexican, to catch the inside of the last one, and go slightly ahead on the main straight. With the team asking him to pit and he yelling no, he kept his foot on the board and managed to hang on the inside at the first corner to start that lap in third place.
Video: Sainz overtaking Pérez in France
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And here, narrated by DAZN F1 Spain
At the end of that lap, Ferrari finally called Carlos Sainz to the pits and he entered, and although he left another three overtaking positions, he was unable to fight for a podium again, which Red Bull finally did not get, since it was stolen by a cunning George Russell.
The man from Madrid calculates that without the bad pitstop (which ended up resulting in his own failure that led to the unsafe release ) he could have taken third place, as he showed this Sunday by overtaking one and the other on the track.
The minor consolation for the #55 at the French GP was the point for the fastest lap, achieved after his second tire change (he mounted mediums for the second time) and the ‘Rider of the Day’ award with which the fans of F1, the first of the season and his second since that award exists.
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