Sainz doesn't understand race control: 'Could have attacked Verstappen'

Carlos Sainz could not get over the fact after the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix that he did not get Sergio Perez' s spot back sooner. According to the Spaniard, things were made too difficult by the race control.

Frustration with Perez

For Perez, it was a frustrating race in Jeddah, as the Mexican saw his virtual lead go up in smoke due to a safety car. Just after the Red Bull Racing driver went in for his first pit stop, Nicholas Latifi crashed into the wall. This caused Perez to lose a spot to Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, but eventually to Sainz as well.

Sainz regained that spot a bit later, however. Perez came out of the pits next to Sainz and decided to settle in front of him. However, the images soon showed that Sainz was in front of the Mexican at the safety car line and was therefore entitled to that third spot. Race control did not intervene, so Perez gave his spot back to Sainz after the restart.

Sainz doesn't understand it

''It definitely was very strange. We need to make things simpler. if Checo would have just given me the position during the safety car which basically would have given me an opportunity to fight Max at the restart and would have given Checo on opportunity to fight me to get the position but what happened is that I was obviously fighting Checo, but I knew that Checo was going to give me a position quickly and he couldn't fight me because he was going to give me a position back so in the end, we created a mess that for me is unnecessary'', Sainz wonders at the press conference.

As Sainz himself says, it wasn't ideal for Perez and Red Bull Racing either. The restart is a perfect opportunity for an overtaking move, which Perez could not use now to capture the third spot. Instead, he gave the spot back after the restart and never came close to capturing that last podium spot yet.