Carlos Sainz feels confident he would’ve finished the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix at Monza in second place even without the incidents that altered the running order of the race.
Sainz was circling in second place early on in the grand prix behind Lewis Hamilton, but lost positions amid pit stops under a safety car.
When the race was put under a red flag following a crash for Charles Leclerc, Sainz took the restart in sixth place but made his way up into second behind Gasly, who inherited the lead from penalty-stricken Lewis Hamilton.
Despite having to settle for the runner-up spot, Sainz affirms the same result would have greeted him without the mid-race disruptions.
“Yeah, I think it’s incredible that we’re halfway disappointed with P2,” the Spaniard said. “I think we couldn’t have believed that I would got a chance to fight for victory today.
“We were very, very close. But honestly, with a normal race I think we would have got P2 because we had really, really good pace.
“So it’s what we deserve, but Pierre there in front is like… ‘woah, how could that happen’. “[We had] a bit of bad luck with the safety car but we did a good job to recover it with the red flag.”
Sainz secured his second career podium finish, following up his third-place result at Brazil last year.
“[I’m] very happy with P2, we were super quick all weekend,” he said. “I feel like we could dominate the midfield pretty easily today so I’m happy with that.
Especially getting back from P6 to P2 and then chasing Pierre and managing to finish three or four tenths behind at the flag.
“We need to be proud of that, we need to be proud of the pace of the car. And then the red flag, I think I would have finished behind Lewis today.”
