But the 27-year-old believes Ferrari can still improve as they continue to pursue Hamilton and Verstappen. “It’s been a very tricky weekend, I won’t lie,” Sainz continued.
“I didn’t have the pace today but I managed to hold in there and bring the one-two for the team. I have some homework to do over the next few days and I’m sure I’ll come back stronger.
“At the restart I had a strong chance because I had a very clean restart behind Charles and Max. He defended well, to be fair, and then suddenly I started seeing some flashing red lights from the back of his car and I said, ‘okay, this is my chance’ and I went for it.”
Sainz said he felt sorry for Verstappen following his retirement on lap 55 and claims the 24-year-old would have taken second place had he finished the race. He added: “[Max] was unfortunate, I think today he was driving well enough to get P2. But I had a good run on him and then he had to retire, so it is what it is and it’s good for Ferrari.”
