Frustrating first-corner incident “put me on the back foot for the race” – Sainz

In brief

Sainz “frustrated” by turn one incident

“From my side, going into turn one, I’m right behind Daniel and Pierre [Gasly], Daniel crashes into Bottas, I’m on the inside of turn one, so I have no possibility to cut turn two like Charles and Gasly and Perez do,” Sainz explained.

“So I am committed to having to do the whole track in turn two. And then actually Daniel without front wing doesn’t even turn into turn two, so I need to turn cut three.”

As well as falling behind his team mate, Sainz was also passed by Antonio Giovinazzi. “In hindsight, honestly, I’m a bit frustrated with the situation because I feel like I’ve been a victim of a whole mess that I had nothing to do with and it made me lose a couple of positions that I shouldn’t have lost,” said Sainz.

“But like always turn one you sometimes are lucky, sometimes are unlucky, and I lost positions that, to be honest, I shouldn’t have lost and put me on the back foot for the race. But we managed to recover with good pace and I’ll try to take that on the positive side.”

Home podium “extremely special” for Perez

“Obviously I wanted more, I wanted to win the race and obviously to finish one-two for the team would have been amazing,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we are such competitive persons that if we finish third, we really, really don’t enjoy it.

“But today is one of those days that I must enjoy because the crowd and seeing so many people so happy, and especially on the podium, everyone who has been with me since day one was on the podium, so that was extremely special for me.”

Hamilton clarifies Perez and Bottas comments

While describing Red Bull’s performance advantage in the race, Hamilton said: “It just shows how fast their car is when Sergio’s that close behind me and able to follow that closely.” Hamilton said on Monday wanted to “make sure people don’t read what I was saying wrong yesterday.”

“I have a lot of respect for [Checo] and think he’s doing a great job in his new team. He’s improved so much this season and I know how hard it is to progress with a new team, it takes time.

“My comment was simply that following another car in Mexico is the hardest thing due to the low drag we all have. That’s why there is very little overtaking. However, he was able to follow so closely which highlights just how much more downforce they were able to carry. Big up Checo for keeping it clean.”

In a later post Hamilton also referred to his criticism of Valtteri Bottas’ driving at the start of the race, having said his team mate “left the door open for Max” at the start.

“We all have bad days,” Hamilton wrote. “We live and we learn. Yesterday I said that [Valtteri Bottas] left the door open and naturally people will jump to criticise.

“We are a team and we win and we lose as a team. There is not one single person responsible for winning or losing, we do it together good or bad. You may be able to beat us but you can’t break us!”

Social media

Notable posts from Twitter, Instagram and more:

Britain's @OllieBearman, who won the Italian and German F4 titles this year, and Brazil's Rafael Camara, who collected several karting trophies, have been signed to Ferrari's Driver Academy. Ferrari will also closely monitor the progress of Finnish karter Tuukka Taponen in 2022. pic.twitter.com/VtAHlsPx2E

— RaceFans (@racefansdotnet) November 8, 2021

• Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

Links

Motor racing links of interest:

Firms under fire for using UK influencers to push nicotine products (The Guardian)

"Racing driver Archie Hamilton, with 207,000 followers, features in an esports-themed YouTube series, in association with British racing team McLaren. This new breed of nicotine influencer – one might call them nicotinfluencers – are soldiers at the UK front of a marketing war that London-based British American Tobacco has long been waging on foreign soil."

Statement on Covid-19 testing (FIA)

"The FIA and Formula 1 can today confirm that at the 2021 FIA Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix, between Monday 1st and Sunday 7th November 7,100 tests for Covid-19 were performed on drivers, teams and personnel. Of these, nine people tested positive."

We always endeavour to credit original sources. If you have a tip for a link relating to single-seater motorsport to feature in the next RaceFans round-up please send it in via the contact form.

Comment of the day

Daniel Ricciardo’s collision with Valtteri Bottas wasn’t the result of a desperate lunge, says @Petebaldwin:

At the point he committed to the corner and brakes, Hamilton was still on the inside and Bottas was in the middle. He wouldn’t have expected Bottas to take that space on the apex of the corner. Bottas was entitled to do it but it was too late for Ricciardo to back out as he’d already braked late – any more pressure and he’d have locked up and taken more cars out.

Ricciardo was a bit optimistic going into the corner and Bottas was a bit optimistic that he could take the line he did. Unfortunately both gambled on that part of the track being clear and it wasn’t.
@Petebaldwin

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to George, Adrian Hancox and Cristofer Lima!

On this day in motorsport

• 35 years ago today Bobby Rahal clinched the CART Indycar championship in the final round at Tamiami Park in Miami after rival Michael Andretti retired with a driveshaft failure. Al Unser Jnr won the race.