Carlos Sainz revealed how an opening lap scuffle with Liam Lawson eventually led to him retiring from Formula 1‘s Mexico City Grand Prix.
Since the summer break, the Spanish driver had been on a run of strong results for Williams.
After bagging his first podium for the Grove-based team at Baku, he followed it up with a stellar recovery drive at Singapore, finishing in the points again.
However, since then, the 31-year-old’s final phase of the season has descended into anarchy.
Following his Austin clash with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, Sainz was slated to start the race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday, ballasted with a five-place grid drop.
Despite a strong showing during qualifying, with the seventh-fastest lap in Q3, Sainz started the race from 12th on the grid.
At the start, his race had already started to unravel as he picked up damage after colliding with Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson.
“A race full of issues, compromised probably by the contact at the start,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“I think we were three or four into [Turn] 1 and there was a big melee that I think… We were three or four cars side by side, like always in Mexico, a tricky one.
“I think I damaged my rim, which damaged my first set of tyres, my rim sensor, my speed sensors of the tyre and my pit limiter wasn’t working.”
The damage Sainz incurred meant he suffered from vibrations throughout his first stint. During his first pitstop, the Williams driver was caught speeding in the pitlane – an issue he ascribed to the damage he had taken on the FW47’s sensors – and was handed a five-second time penalty.
A two-stop strategy further compounded his miseries as his pit limiter woes earned him a drive-through penalty, something that completely ruined his afternoon.
“From there on, even if we got a five seconds penalty at the first pitstop, we were still in the hunt for points,” he explained.
“But then we had to do a second pitstop. We had the issue again of the pit limiter and we basically had a very difficult day.
“A shame because I was really quick and even if I had a compromised strategy, compromised tyres, compromised car, we were quick, but too many issues.”
Sainz weighs in on late-race VSC controversy
While Sainz was battling his demons, the duo of Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc were setting up a grandstand finish for the fans in attendance at the track.
Verstappen, in third, was hunting the Ferrari driver at the rate of nought with his red-walled Soft tyres in his final stint.
And no sooner had the Dutchman gotten into DRS range of Leclerc, on the penultimate lap, Sainz parked his FW47 up in the stadium section, triggering a Virtual Safety Car.
“I was just pushing. I was behind Lance [Stroll], pushing him flat out to see if I could get P14,” revealed Sainz.
“I had overheating on the tyre and I had a half spin, but anyway we were going to retire the car.”
The race ended under VSC conditions with Verstappen unable to make a move on the Monegasque.
Footage later showed Sainz had parked his car behind the barriers, drawing criticism from fans and the media alike for unnecessarily neutralising the race.
“I went into the inside of the barrier with my car, trying to avoid any Safety Car or VSC. I think I did the safest thing I could do,” he asserted.
“I felt I put the car safe enough. I don’t know if it was VSC, double yellow or what, but I definitely tried to avoid any of that.”
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