Sainz left disappointed after Sunday night

Carlos Sainz revealed he should have achieved higher than P14 at the Marina Bay Circuit on Sunday night, especially after his encouraging qualifying performance.

Both Sainz’ and his team-mate Daniil Kvyat were pleased with their qualifying result in the top ten, as the duo felt they would finally return to the points after number fruitless results in recent times.

At the start of the Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz clipped Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg after trying to avoid Max Verstappen, who had a slow start. The incident resulted in Hulkenberg retiring and an early pitstop for the Spaniard as he was ordered to remove a loose piece of his car.

“I’m angry after [last Sunday]’s race, especially after having qualified in P6,” the 22-year-old said.

“The race didn’t start well, as I had to avoid Max when the lights went out and, while doing that, a Force India suddenly came flying by and we collided.

“He took the worst part and I took the second worst part, damaging the right-hand side of my car.

“However, we still had decent pace after this and we were fighting for points, but we were forced to stop early as we were shown the black and orange flag and we re-joined the race behind too much traffic.

“But I stay positive: the level of performance we’ve shown this weekend has been amazing and points would’ve certainly been possible. It’s time to look forward to the next two races in Malaysia and Japan, where hopefully we’ll achieve a better result than.”

Kvyat, though, showed a relatively impressive display as the Russian returned to the points after a flurry of underwhelming results. He also garnered praise for his stubbornness after he kept Red Bull replacement Verstappen at bay for a number of laps.