Carlos Sainz finished the Sprint of the 2024 Miami Grand Prix in fifth position, sixth round of the Formula One World Championship of the season. The Ferrari Spaniard therefore confirmed his starting position, remaining stuck behind Daniel Riccardo’s Racing Bulls for over ten laps and never managing to complete the overtaking maneuver until the checkered flag.
This is a disappointing result for the Scuderia di Maranello and for the 29-year-old from Madrid, penalized by a set-up that was probably too loaded on his SF-24 which put him in difficulty in the close duel with the Australian in terms of speed on the straight despite the use of the DRS. “I think it showed perfectly, we didn’t have much speed on the straight even with the DRS“, Sainz’s first immediate comment to Sky Sport’s microphones.
“The acceleration of the Honda engine, even in fourth, fifth and sixth gear makes a nice step there, and it becomes very difficult to overtake on a track like this. There was also a lot of dirt off the line, so you can’t do a super braking off the ideal line. We knew this could happen with our set-up choice, but now we focus on tomorrow with the important race“, adds the former McLaren driver.
F1, few emotions in the Miami Sprint. Verstappen wins ahead of Leclerc, Sainz 5th behind Ricciardo
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On the fight with Ricciardo, Carlos stated: “From my point of view it was frustrating, honestly. For sure Daniel did a good job but we lacked a bit of top speed today“.
