Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz rued pitting one lap prior to the Safety Car being deployed in Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix as it prevented him from seizing a potential race win.
Sainz looked set to slot into second behind polesitter Max Verstappen at the start until Sergio Perez’s lunge saw him lose places to Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri.
The Spaniard continued to circulate behind the McLaren and his Ferrari team-mate across the opening laps and ran an extended opening stint when those two pitted.
Ferrari boxed Sainz on Lap 27, a lap before the Safety Car’s arrival, which enabled Lando Norris, who had slipped to sixth on the first lap, to pit and emerge in the lead.
Having been running ahead of Norris on the road when he ventured into the pits, Sainz bemoaned Ferrari being unfortunate to miss out on the chance to obtain a win.
“There’s many things to assess. First of all, like they said in the old school days, Checo came like a torpedo at the start,” Sainz said. “I had to take avoiding action.
“When I was P2 at the start and I came out of turn 1 on 4th, that already put us in the back foot because it’s not the same race in front P2 than racing for P4.
“I saved my tyres, extended and we missed the Safety Car by one lap, which would have meant another win probably.”
Sainz was then embroiled in a battle with Piastri on the restart that concluded with the pair colliding at Turn 17 and the Ferrari driver being penalised over the incident.
The five-second time drop demoted Sainz to fifth, with the three-time grand prix winner unsatisfied that Piastri had avoided punishment for forcing him wide at Turn 11.
“This meant another bit of frustration and the frustration with Oscar for running me wide off the track and having contact there,” he continued.
“And then I realized it was time to be aggressive because everyone was being aggressive today and if I needed to get a move on Oscar, you could see that we were struggling on the straights. I needed to send one down the inside.
“I did it on a good pace towards the end, catching the guys in front, catching Charles, but it was too late.”
