Carlos Sainz Jr. criticised Toro Rosso’s tactics after he dropped out of Q2 at the Canadian Grand Prix, believing he was at a disadvantage compared to team-mate Daniil Kvyat.
Sainz Jr. finished inside the top 10 in Saturday’s final practice session but felt Kvyat was favoured in qualifying, receiving Sainz Jr.’s slipstream, without the favour being repaid.
Sainz Jr. qualified in 13th position, two spots behind his team-mate, who clipped the wall exiting Turn 9 during the session.
“I was of course complaining because I was never getting a slipstream,” he said.
“Behind me there were people getting my slipstream, interesting enough it was team-mate and every lap the same, every lap it was three or four tenths on the data just from pure top speed.
“I wasn’t happy about it, because we are not being given equal chances, and when you are not being given equal chances and giving away four-tenths on the straight you don’t get to enjoy it much.
“It was planned for me to go in front, [but I was] the four sessions in front, four sessions you go out in front… for me it’s not fair.”
Sainz Jr., who spun at Turn 1, was also frustrated by yellow flags during qualifying.
“I’m very disappointed as after FP3 we finally got to show some performance and were definitely in a good position for Q3 but qualifying was full of trouble.
“On my two fastest laps I hit yellow flags and I couldn’t improve so P13 is definitely not where we want to be.
“When you have two yellow flags on your laps where you are coming two to three tenths faster you can’t do anything and you just have to back out of it.”
