Sainz ‘definitely’ ready to step up

Carlos Sainz believes he is ready to follow his former team-mate Max Verstappen into Red Bull’s senior team.

Earlier this season Verstappen was handed a promotion to Red Bull Racing after the team decided to demote Daniil Kvyat back down to Toro Rosso.

The move yielded instant success as Verstappen won his debut race for Red Bull, the Spanish Grand Prix.

The race, though, also ended well for Sainz as the Toro Rosso driver raced to sixth place on the day.

And he believes it shows that he is also ready to step up to the senior team.

“I definitely think so,” he told Sky Sports HQ in the Monaco paddock.

“I am here for Red Bull whenever they need me to jump in the top team. I am fully ready. I always say the same that [being] ready is not a problem.

“My performance in the Spanish GP was good, but it was the same as in all the other grands prix. It’s just nothing strange happened to me and finally I managed to pick up a strong result.

“But, honestly, I did nothing different to any other grand prix, I just had a bit more luck.

“So very happy, very pleased with that and hopefully this is a bit of a start from zero for me this season and we can keep scoring some results from now on.”