18/09/2023
NEWS STORY
With a performance worthy of 'The Professor', Alain Prost, Carlos Sainz soaks up the pressure to claim second win for Ferrari.
On paper it was a lights-to-flag win, much like many of Max Verstappen's victories this season, but that doesn’t begin to tell the story.
First Carlos Sainz had to hold off George Russell and Charles Leclerc at the start, then followed a long period of backing up the field, not to mention an earlier than planned pit stop due to the deployment of the Safety Car.
Then, following the decision not to made a second stop - unlike the Mercedes pair pursuing him - the Spaniard had to soak up the pressure of a relentless attack from Lando Norris and the Silver Arrows.
However, using all the guile of countryman, Fernando Alonso and the wisdom of 'The Professor', Alain Prost, Sainz pulled off one of the most amazing wins in recent history.
"I felt under control, to be honest," he insisted at race end. "I always felt like I had the headspace and the pace in hand to do whatever I wanted to do.
"I'm not going to lie, you're under pressure," he continued. "You're obviously very close to making any kind of mistake, but I felt under control. I felt like I could manage well, and we brought it home. That was the best feeling, you know? I am over the moon right now!"
Having initially backed up the field in a bid to prevent George Russell making use of a Safety Car to switch to the fresh mediums saved from Saturday - which is essentially what happened - in the final stages Sainz had to use DRS to protect his slender lead.
"Given our limitations with tyre wear and degradation, it was all about managing the beginning of each stint to make sure I made it to the target lap that we wanted to do in each compound," said the Spaniard.
"Obviously, the Safety Car forced us to pit even earlier than we wanted and I knew it was going to be a long spell on the hards."
"I had to keep George, I had to keep him slowing down," he added. "Don't give him a safety car or a medium tyre opportunity. And it worked to perfection.
"It was just quite tight at the end,' he admitted, in a masterpiece of understatement. "We gave Lando a bit of DRS to help him and then in the end, we made it to P1."
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