Carlos Sainz gives ‘feels like retirement’ verdict after Leclerc ‘crashed into me’

Carlos Sainz says his P12 result at the British Grand Prix felt “like a retirement” as he had been fighting for seventh place when Charles Leclerc crashed into him.

Racing his former Ferrari team-mate for position, Leclerc opened the door for Sainz when he locked up through Becketts which gave Sainz a run on the straight.

Carlos Sainz: We had done everything right

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Trying to pass around the outside of Stowe, Sainz had his nose alongside Leclerc’s rear tyre when the Monegasque had a snap of oversteer and lost control of his SF-25 with the former team-mates making contact as they went off the circuit.

“Charles lost the car just in front of me,” reported Sainz. “Crashed into him.”

Sainz’s FW47 suffered front wing and floor damage.

That cost the Spaniard who dropped down the order to 12th, and wasn’t able to recover.

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“It was going well,” Sainz told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “I feel like the whole year so far we were doing everything right. The strategy goals, good driving. P7, P8 at the time.

“Ten laps to go when I was fighting with Charles, I think he was on his out lap on the slicks. He lost control of the car and crashed into me. And that was it.

“I went back to P12 with a damaged car, and I finished P12. Again, very unlucky.

“A bit fed up with this situation where always something happens to us that is out of our control. No offence to Charles, this always can happen to any driver.

“Just upset with the fact that it happened to me again when we were about to have a clean weekend and a clean race.”

Asked if his performance was a bit of a relief given Williams’ recent struggle to reach the points, Sainz said for him, there was no silver lining in his Silverstone story.

In fact, his P12 result felt like he might as well have retired from the race.

“No, for me at P12 it’s like retiring,” he said. “In the position we are, it feels like a retirement, especially because we were running P7, P8. We had done everything right.

“Yes, maybe the others took a bit more gambles on the strategy calls. And maybe they will look into what Nico did. And Stroll, I think, did a couple of also good calls maybe.

“But we did a very solid race with management of the pace and the race. So we’re in the ideal position to score a top-seven, top eight result. And sadly, I think with Charles, he lost control of the car and took me out. It’s what it is. There’s nothing we can do.

“But I welcome this two-week break to see if something changes in my luck. So we can start having an F1 season. Because this has been everything but good so far.”

The incident with Leclerc was not broadcast on the FOM feed, with Sainz surprised they didn’t put it on the replays.

“Yeah, it was damaged after the contact with Charles,” he said. “Floor and front wing.

“I don’t think it was on TV. They told me it wasn’t.

“We were fighting into Turn 15, I think he lost the car in 15, and he went in the gravel. It was there when I was on his left and crashed into me.

“I was overtaking him, back on the slicks. That’s why I’m surprised they didn’t put it on the reviews. We went into Turn 15,he went on the middle of the track, picked up the wet stuff and crashing to me like this.”

The result meant Sainz has scored just one point in the last four races, the driver down in 15th place in the Drivers’ standings on 13 points, 33 less than Alex Albon who is eighth on the log.

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