Carlos Sainz Jnr said he was pleased with his podium finish in the Japanese Grand Prix as he thought it would be difficult to pull off early in the race.
While he committed to a two-stop strategy early on in proceedings, his team mate Charles Leclerc switched to a one-stop which helped him rise up the order. However Sainz was able to pass his team mate and McLaren driver Lando Norris to claim the final place on the rostrum.
“I had a good race,” said Sainz afterwards, “to be honest, I’m very happy, because it was quite tough out there with the degradation.”
The track temperature reached 40C ahead of the start, considerably hotter than it had been earlier in the weekend, and Sainz was relieved when conditions cooled as the race went on.
“Suddenly the clouds came, the degradation went a lot lower and suddenly I thought that maybe one-stop was quicker and we were on the two.
“I had to overtake a lot of cars out there today and overtaking was tricky. Like always at Suzuka you really need to nail the last chicane to get a good run into turn one. I could finish my moves, but it was tough out there.”
Sainz began the last stint in fifth place but pounced on Norris after the McLaren driver made a mistake at the hairpin. He then closed on Leclerc and passed his team mate with little difficulty, after Ferrari reminded their leading driver the priority was to stay ahead of Norris.
“Honestly I thought it was on but I thought it was going to be very difficult to get back into fourth or P3,” said Sainz. “[Given] how tricky it was to overtake the Mercedes in the second stint and how difficult it was to follow, I knew I needed a very big delta to approach Lando and Charles and in the end we managed.
“I was quick on that hard tyre, I really like how the hard gave me a good feeling to push and I could get the moves done and get that podium.”
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2024 Japanese Grand Prix
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