Sainz relieved with points finish after comeback drive

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Carlos Sainz knew he would be up against it coming into Sochi this weekend. He's been slapped with a three place grid penalty after his clash with Lance Stroll in Bahrain, putting him on the backfoot straight away.

He qualified in 11th place for the Russian Grand Prix, but the penalty meant he started from 14th. But the Spanish driver still targeted a points finish on SUnday - and that's what he managed to achieve.

"What a tough race," he admitted afterwards. "Especially as we were starting from behind because of the grid penalty.

"But today we got everything right," he continued. "The start, the first lap, the pit stop, the strategy.

"We did a good race and recovered well from P14 to P10, which I think was the maximum we could do this weekend."

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After a safety car at the start of the race, The midfield cars soon got spread out. That left Sainz with little more to do than avoid making any mistakes until the chequered flag. Ironically, he ended up being tracked down by his Bahrain nemesis for the latter half of the Grand Prix.

"After the pit-stop it was a bit of a lonely race for me," he said. "I just had to control the gap to Stroll, which we managed to do well."

The championship point won by Sainz this weekend keeps him in ninth place in the drivers championship. Toro Rosso stays in sixth place in the constructors championship heading into the next race - which is Sainz' home event.

"I must say that now I'm really looking forward to the next race in Barcelona," he said.

"It's a track where I've always performed very well, and to race in front of my home crowd is always very special.

"I also have my own grandstand there, so a lot of people will be coming to support me. This will surely be one of the highlights of the weekend."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.