'Mercedes today proved they have done a good step and its a good reference,' he said. Sainz said Ferrari, who brought aerodynamic upgrades to Barcelona, had identified their car's weaknesses and knew exactly what was lacking but it would take time to improve things. Last year the Monegasque had started on pole position. Sainz's team mate Charles Leclerc started from the pitlane after qualifying 19th, fighting with the car's handling on Saturday, and finished 11th.

I did everything I could, I did the most optimal driving and stints that I could do but unfortunately P5 was the best I could achieve.' 'That's why today we were struggling so much out there. 'We know race pace and high speed corners is our main weakness and unfortunately Barcelona has a high degradation Tarmac, a high-degradation configuration and a lot of high speed corners. Unfortunately this is our situation,' he said. 'I put in even harder work today (than in qualifying) and it doesn't show. While Red Bull's Formula One championship leader romped to his fifth win in seven races, finishing 24 seconds ahead of Mercedes' runner-up Lewis Hamilton, Sainz fell back to fifth place.Īt the chequered flag, the Spaniard was 45 seconds adrift of Verstappen. June 4 (Reuters) - Carlos Sainz had the thrill of starting his home Spanish Grand Prix on the front row and challenging Max Verstappen for the lead into the first corner but that was as good as it got for the Ferrari driver on Sunday.

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