'I am not as smooth as I want to be' admits Sainz after P4 in Imola sprint

Carlos Sainz crashed in qualifying which meant he started in P10 for the sprint race, but managed to make up six places during the 21-lap race to ensure he starts Sunday's Grand Prix on the second row alongside Sergio Perez.

The Ferrari driver crashed out of the Australian Grand Prix, but is hoping to recover following the news of his renewed contract at the team. After a relatively slow start, Sainz cruised past Kevin Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris as he put his car into fourth place.

His teammate Leclerc suffered degredation which cost him the win, with Max Verstappen overtaking him on the penultimate lap of the sprint race. 

While Leclerc was hunting a win, it was simply a recovery job for Sainz, who needed a good performance to give himself a chance for Sunday's race.

What has Sainz said?

"I did the maximum that I could do today with the way that the race played out. I knew that I had to get up to the top five and hopefully the top four, and today I got P4 and now I am in the mix for tomorrow. It was a solid day and a solid race. I'm ready to fight everyone tomorrow.

"I am not as smooth as I want to be and mistakes like yesterday shows that I am not 100% happy with the car but I am hustling out there. It was important to have 20 solid laps to feel the car in the dirty air and with the degradation that was quite high as you could see with Charles we were struggling with the front graining," he added.

"There are no magic weapons [to fix pace], you have to do something from your side as a driver and I have to do techniques that I am not used to as a driver to be fast with this car, and I need testing and some practice sessions to try things to bring it a bit more to my liking. For that I need FP1 and FP2, and as soon as I find a balance that I like and a combination with my driving I can be as fast as anyone [on the grid]," Sainz concluded.