Carlos Sainz came out on the starting grid of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with the intention of closing his first season with the Ferrari team in style. The driver from Madrid still had options to finish fifth in the general classification, but to do so, he had to overtake his teammate, Charles Leclerc, and Lando Norris.
The Spaniard made a lap in qualifying that helped him climb to fifth place in Q3, and he had to start on the soft tyres, which affected his strategy. However, the drivers around him were also starting with that compound, except for Valtteri Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda.
The Ferrari driver took advantage of this to pass the Mercedes driver, and was fourth at the start, a position he held until lap 20 , when he stopped to put hard. With his arrest, he fell quite a few places, but the cars ahead of him also had to go in to change tires.
When everyone passed through the pit lane, Sainz returned to the fourth position he held before the tire dance. He stayed there until the safety car came out and got into a podium position after Sergio Pérez abandoned.
The Ferrari man spoke from the top of the podium after adding his fourth podium of the year: “After everything that happened with the safety car, we were in the right place in the right place, all the time with a good pace. A podium and Finishing my first season with Ferrari like this on the podium is a magical ending, I also finished fifth in the championship, today I enjoyed it,” he said.
“I was very strong today, from qualifying I saw that I had a good lap, and that has carried over to the race. Even on the grid lap I felt good, and I drove fantastic in the first stint.”
“With the hard one I was also fast, but with the safety car at the end, the nerves never went away. However, we managed to stay united, and I enjoyed it a lot,” he said.
Sainz signed the fourth podium of the first campaign that he wore a red Ferrari jumpsuit, and explained that this was his job: “As soon as I am in a fight, I play, and that is what I have come to F1 for, this shows that I am ready for whatever comes and I can make starts like today, signing very complete races”.
However, those who took the spotlight at the Abu Dhabi GP were the two contenders for the title, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, whom Sainz accompanied on the podium: “Probably no one remembers this podium because in the end, having such a battle up front, and I joked with Alonso about this, it will be a rare podium, but I’m going to do my thing, doing my job, not thinking about the championship, just finishing ahead of Norris and Leclerc.”
“I think the one who finished ahead would deserve it today, they are two great drivers at the best moment of their careers, and they have given us a great show. Congratulations to both of them, especially to Max, who has achieved a super victory , I am happy for him because we shared a team in our first year at Toro Rosso”, he commented on the champion.
The Spaniard was in the same garage as Verstappen in 2015, in their debut in F1, as well as in four races in 2016 before the Dutchman moved up to Red Bull: ” Seeing him being able to win a world championship is a good thing for me too, and I admire it”.
“I know that with that level I can do races like today, and it prepares me for a 2022 for which I am ready,” he concluded.
