Carlos Sainz Jr. called his seventh-place finish for Toro Rosso at the Hungarian Grand Prix as “like gold”, after a strong performance in the STR12.
Sainz Jr. made it through to Q3 and started from ninth spot following Nico Hülkenberg’s gearbox sanction, before he leapt up to sixth on the opening lap.
Sainz Jr. held firm against McLaren rival Fernando Alonso following a Safety Car period and they maintained positions during the pit stop phase, having dived in for new tyres at the same time.
However, Alonso launched an attack around the outside of Turn 2 and captured the inside line for Turn 3 to grab sixth position, and consequently edged clear of the younger Spaniard.
Sainz Jr., though, had enough in hand to keep Force India’s Sergio Pérez at bay and recorded seventh place, enabling Toro Rosso to move to within two points of Williams in the standings.
“It was a great race,” said Sainz Jr. “I managed to do a very good start, went around the outside of both McLarens into Turn 1 and held onto my position into Turn 2.
“At this point, I saw that maybe I was also capable of getting a Mercedes, but I decided to back-off a bit and play it safe because the work was done.
“From then onwards it was a very tough task to defend from Fernando, as he was much faster than us.
“In the end he got past us but I’m happy to have been able to hold on to that seventh position… For us this is like gold at the moment!
“All in all, it’s been a very positive weekend with a perfect qualifying, a fantastic start and race.”
Sainz Jr.’s team-mate, Daniil Kvyat, was left to rue a grid penalty for impeding Lance Stroll during qualifying, having made up five spots to take 11th place.
“It was a great race where we were not rewarded, unfortunately,” he said.
“We had good pace out there and I think that, without the grid penalty, we could’ve been fighting for points.”
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