Carlos Sainz has lived another race against the Hungarian Grand Prixwhere he finished eighth. The Madrid pilot has seen againr harmed by the strategy of Ferrari, who has decided to give priority again to Charles Leclerc at the last stop. In the end, the move went wrong for those from Maranello, who ended up outclassed by the two Mercedes.
Leclerc’s first pit stop was very slow, 9.4 seconds, which caused the Monegasque to lose position with Sainz. To compensate, at the second stop Ferrari made him go through the pits one lap before Carlos, when in this situation, the car in front has priority.
A manual ‘undercut’ has allowed the Monegasque to overtake the man from Madridbut Leclerc received a five-second penalty for exceeding the speed limit in the ‘pit-lane’ and that has cost him to fall from sixth to seventh place, behind Russell, although in front of Sainz.
After the race, speaking to DAZN, Sainz did not want to add fuel to the fire and has avoided any controversy about. “There’s not much to say, he (Leclerc) had a slow stop and then it’s clear that the team has decided to change the positions of the cars to compensate, or I don’t know, a shame,” Sainz explained, assuring that he was not angry about the ‘undercut’.
????️ Carlos Sainz, on Leclerc’s undercut
“The team has decided to change the positions of the cars, just to compensate. A pity”
“What we have to worry about is the second and a half that the Mercedes put us at the end of the stint”#HungriaDAZNF1 ???????? pic.twitter.com/7f8bD2wq56
— DAZN Spain (@DAZN_ES) July 23, 2023
“I’m not so worried about finishing seventh or eighth. I’m worried about going a second and a half slower than Mercedes at the end of the race. It is the main problem of the season and we are not managing to solve it”, assured Carlos, who in Hungary dropped to sixth place in the championship, surpassed by Russell, with 90 points, three more than Ferrari’s.
On McLaren’s step forward, Sainz was surprised: “It is already clear that they are ahead of us, but the only thing we can do is focus on ourselves and improve. Our rivals are taking steps forward.”
2023-07-23 16:30:53
#HUNGARY
