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During the Singapore GP, the winning streak of Red Bull and Max Verstappen came to an end. Carlos Sainz said he controlled the race from start to finish, although we did have a fierce battle during the end of the race.
“To be honest, I felt like I had the race under control,” Carlos Sainz said afterwards in the parc. “I always felt like I had it under control and could go faster when I needed to.”
“I’m not going to lie though, you are under pressure at such a moment. It doesn’t matter if you make a mistake in some way, but I felt like I had it under control.”
“I felt like I managed it well and we managed to win. That was the best feeling you know. I’m overjoyed!”
According to Sainz, the safety car came at a bad time because of the incident with Logan Sargeant. According to Sainz, it made everything more difficult because the second stint was extended.
“I knew it would be a very long stint on the hard tyre,” said Sainz, who cleverly gave Lando Norris a DRS advantage to help him keep George Russell behind him.
“I had to slow George down. I was not allowed to give him the advantage of a safety car and the medium tire. That worked perfectly.”
Ultimately, a virtual safety car due to Esteban Ocon’s retirement ensured that George Russell and Lewis Hamilton could still pit and have the medium tire compound installed. They were much faster than Leclerc, Norris and Sainz.
“It was very close at the end of the race,” said Sainz. “We gave Lando a bit of DRS to help him and that helped in the end, we managed to finish first.”