Follow usCarlos Sainz was left glum-faced as his Ferrari could only manage hapless 4th after being overtaken by the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso in the closing stages of the race.
Sainz, who started 4th and for the majority of the race was running in that position, could not contain the late charge of his fellow compatriot Alonso, who pitted late for a fresh set of hard tires.
Even bigger dissapointment lied in store for Sainz’teammate Leclerc, as the Monegasque lost power on lap 41 and was forced to retire, losing him a certain podium finish.
However, that would have been a rather grim consolation for the Italian side, as they not only lacked the pace of dominant Red Bull (the gap rocketing up to one-second per lap at one stage), but seem to endure difficulties in preserving their tires.
“From the test we knew that the Red Bulls and the Aston Martins just have a lot better deg [degredation – ie, how gently they are able to treat their tyres], a lot better race pace than us, and in the end we had to settle for P4, which to be honest is not a lot better than we could have done today.” said Sainz in a post-race interview.
“It’s a bit of a reality check, it’s where we are. We just used the tyres too much. As soon as I pushed to defend from Fernando, I cooked the tyres and then you need to start looking also to Lewis. We managed to hold Lewis off, but it gives us very little margin to play with in the race.”
The next race will be in Saudi Arabia on 19th of March.
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