Sainz hit back after his shunt in final practice to q🃏ualify sixth, just a tenth shy of Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.

The Spania🅠rd maintained track position at the start, settling into sixth behind Pierre Gasly and Charles Lecler𝔉c.

Once Sainz switched to the 🧸hard tyre, he struggled for pace, falling into the clutches of Alonso.

Refle🐻cting on the race at Zandvoort, Sainz said that he’s never♑ felt as slow in a grand prix before.

“I am very puzzled at the moment because I had no pace at all during the race since lap 1,” Sainz told Sky Sports. “I was struggling with the front and rear tyres, I was degrading a lot the tyres, I felt like I was sliding a lot and I couldn’t match the pace that I had on Frida﷽y so this means we need to look into what went wrong because I’ve never felt so slow in a race, to be honest. I was struggling a lot and I had no pace whatsoever - something to analyse.

“The grip I had today was very low and✅ my tyre wear was super high. I was sliding a lot more than I was supposed to. Just going to look into what happened there because it wasn’t normal.”

Leclerc felt he had a better race pace th🍸an Gasly ahead but the difficulties in overtaking and traffic meant itꦿ was impossible to make an overtake.

“I think today, to be honest, the perform♍ance we were pro❀bably quicker than Pierre and every time there was a bit of a gap I could come back but then once I arrived in two seconds range it was very difficult to get closer,” Leclerc added. “We were particularly good on the softs, especially towards the end of the run.

“We managed those tyres in a good way and then we went on the hard. It was a little bit more difficult but we still had a good pace. The pace was g🍬ood but only fifth today, I think we could have done fourth. It’s a bit of a shame for yesterday in qualifying.”