The Spaniard lined up in P12 ahead of Sunday's GP, but after Charles Leclerc's crash at Turn 19 brought out the Red Flag, Sainz was in P10 at the restart on Lap 71, ahead of Williams teammate Alex Albon after the Grove team carried out an effective backing-up strategy in Monte Carlo.

Sainz's hopes of a third consecutive points finish, and what would have been double points for Williams, were dashed, however, as Hulkenberg dived down the inside of Haas' Esteban Ocon at Lowes Corner, otherwise known as the Fairmont Hairpin at Turn 6. The Audi driver tagged Sainz and ended the 31-year-old's race.

Hulkenberg's own hopes of a points finish were ruined as he received a ten-second penalty for the incident, a decision the F1 veteran disagreed with. When asked whether he thought the penalty was deserved, Hulkenberg responded: "No, of course not, but I only obviously have my one-time live moment. Esteban [Ocon] was swerving around a bit, I had to avoid a crash with him.

Sainz, on the other hand, would not let the incident go in his post-race media appearances. The former Ferrari driver explained to media, including GPblog, how his race unravelled at F1's Jewel in the Crown following Hulkenberg's "stupid risk" in making what the Williams driver called a "dream move."

Sainz said: "Very well managed race up until that restart. I think we did a very good, solid pace, very good race in general, was en route to score another couple of points this weekend with a solid race, but unfortunately, people at the restart just decided to take stupid risks, and my race was over.

Sainz remained overall positive on his performance in Monaco, making the incident with Hulkenberg all the more cruel. He added: "Honestly, I showed really, really good pace. That's why I'm happy about today, but also very frustrated with the outcome because, in the end, just people being over optimistic runs your race."

When asked whether he had spoken to Hulkenberg after the crash, Sainz had said he hadn't, before making a sarcastic remark that it was actually "quite impressive" how an experienced driver such as the 38-year-old Audi man could be involved in such an incident.

Sainz said: "It's quite impressive that with so much experience, you know, around a track like this, that every year it bunches up in Lowes, people still can do this kind of mistakes. It's textbook Monaco and you fall into the same mistakes sometimes."

Hulkenberg was far from the only driver to receive a penalty at Monaco, with a total of five drivers getting penalised for exceeding the pit lane speed limit.

One of those drivers was Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, yet the seven-time world champion was adamant he was not speeding. That begs the question then - what was really behind the pit lane chaos in Monte Carlo?