Spaniard finished second behind Pierre Gasly and ahead of Lance Stroll; needed 'one more lap' to catch Gasly; team-mate Lando Norris finished fourth with Mercedes fifth and seventh
Sunday 6 September 2020 19:40, UK
Carlos Sainz said he left nothing on the track after an impressive drive to finish second behind AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly in a thrilling Italian GP at Monza.
The Spaniard was sitting comfortably in second behind Lewis Hamilton in the early stages, and expected to lead when Hamilton received a 10-second stop-go penalty.
However, despite a red flag and another standing start on the grid levelling up the field, Sainz claimed a creditable second spot and admitted he was satisfied with his drive.
He said: "I'm especially happy with the way I raced, I gave absolutely everything and didn't leave anything on the table after we were out there battling our way back.
"During the safety car I felt like I'd be leading the race but the red flag gave everyone an opportunity to reset their tyres. I felt honestly angry but after that it was head down and we nearly made it back to Pierre.
"I had a chance to win the race, then came the red flag, which hit me hard. Another bit of bad luck when I was running comfortably in second but I can't be too disappointed.
"Four-tenths behind across the start-finish line with the DRS [Drag Reduction System] would have been a cruise past Pierre [Gasly] but I prefer not to think about that!"
Sainz, who will join struggling Ferrari from next season, also stated he only would have needed one more lap to catch leader Gasly and later acknowledged his team told him just in time about the pit lane closure which saw Hamilton receive his costly penalty.
He added: "It's incredible I'm halfway disappointed with P2, I wouldn't have believed I would've got a chance to fight for victory today.
"We were very, very close, so honestly in a normal race we would have got P2 behind Lewis because we had really good pace. It's what we deserved.
"We had a bit of bad luck with the safety car but we did a good job to recover. We've been super quick all weekend and I felt like I could dominate the midfield pretty easily so I'm happy with that.
"We only needed one more lap!"
