Carlos Sainz cruised to fifth place in Sunday’s Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, with teammate Charles Leclerc finishing in front of him on fourth. The two Ferrari drivers did so despite starting 11th and ninth respectively at Gilles Villeneuve after a poor qualifying and a penalty for Sainz.
Much of their progress was due to their decision not to pit when the safety car came out early. The race was neutralized in the 12th round after George Russell‘s accident on the exit of turn 9.
“I knew Barcelona would not be a good track for us and Canada would be better. This was confirmed back on Friday when it was seen that tracks with low degradation and slower corners were our forte. This allowed us to show more of our true race pace.”
“Thepace in Austria will depend a lot on the characteristics of the track, our pace varies a lot from track to track. We saw that in Monaco and Canada we were stronger than on tracks with fast corners like Spain where we had more problems. So I think there will be a huge variation in our performance,” Sainz said.