Sainz would have been ‘more pissed off’ to lose P4 to gearbox issue
Carlos Sainz Jr has revealed a gearbox problem would have likely pr🐷evented him from scorꦿing points in Bahrain, even if he had avoided clashing with Max Verstappen.
The McLaren driver and Verstappen collided at Turn 4 as the pair squabbled over fifth place in the early stages o✨f Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix. The incident forced Sainz to pit with a puncture, which dropped h𒆙im to the back of the field before he later retired.
Carlos Sainz Jr has revealed a gea๊rbox problem would have likely prevented him from scoring points in Bahrain, even if he had avoided clashing with Max Verstappen.
The McLaren driver and Verstappen collided at Turn 4 as the pair squabbled over fifth place in the early stages of Sunꩲday’s B▨ahrain Grand Prix. The incident forced Sainz to pit with a puncture, which dropped him to the back of the field before he later retired.
But while Sainz was frusওtrated to miss out on a potential fourth place finish, he said he can take comfort from the fact a gearbox issue - which cost him around a second per lap - woul🎀d have ruined his chances anyway.
“It was a day to🌊 score lots of points but I'm gonna keep the po𓂃sitives,” Sainz said.
“I had a problem in the gearbox on lap 10, I was losin꧋g synchronisation of the gears for the rest of the race and I was losing nearly a second a lap because of it.
“So if I had of been P4 after that accident and suddenly the gearbox would have started failing like it did, now I would be even more pissed off. Let's keep t🌟he positives and let these things happen now and let's get the points when things are running smoother.”
The Bahrain GP stewards investigated the Sainz-Verta♎ppen collision but took no further action.
Asked about the incident, Sainz said: “I arrived in front of him and braked later than him, he hit the kerb I think or got v🦩ery far in the kerb and loses the car and I get a really big impact from the right side.
“So you could say leave a l꧋ittle more space, don't leave more space. He just missed the corner completely and hit me really hard. So that's racing, just very unfortunate.
“I had a lot of pace on the cars in front, I was a🐭tta🍷cking the Mercedes and the Red Bull, just got the worst part of the accident.
“I could very easily have backed out of it and got him later in the race,” he added.🌱 “It’s just one of those things that happens, I had to try with the pace I had, overtaking a Red Bull had to be my target. I was fast enough to do it.”
Verstappen felt Sainz had simply not seen him at t♊he corner entry.
“He tried to ﷽go around the outside and braked late, I guess he didn't see me,” the Dutchman explained.
“In th🌼ese cars you are blind to what is happening next to you.I braked late and saw him turn into the corner, so I had to take avoiding action.
“We clipped wheels and it was unfortunate.”
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