Sainz aiming to build on consistent start to season

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Carlos Sainz has been building up an impressively consistent start to the 2018 season with Renault.

The Spanish driver has started inside the top ten for all six of this year's races. He's finished outside the points only once, when he missed out in Bahrain.

Last time out he crossed the line in tenth place in Monaco to keep his solid form going. However he's also aware that he needs to start moving forward and to target better finishes.

Despite his consistency, Sainz is still one place and six points behind his team mate Nico Hulkenberg in the drivers championship.

"I think it’s positive that we’re looking competitive and scoring points at the past few races," he said this week. "It’s important to keep scoring points and adding to the tally.

"Now it’s about building on this consistency and placing ourselves higher inside the top ten."

Canada might be the sort of track that suits him - provided he can avoid the same sort of misfortune that struck 12 months ago. First lap contact with Haas' Romain Grosjean made it a short outing for him in 2017.

'Bitter' Sainz never on the right tyre at the right time

"It’s certainly a different circuit," Sainz said of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. "Quite similar to Melbourne in a way, as it’s a mix of a street and a permanent track.

"The circuit is usually dirty with leaves and even wildlife during the early parts of the weekend," he pointed out. "That makes it a bit of a challenge to get up to speed.

"I quite like the section between turns four, five, six and seven. The walls are close and you have to find the rhythm through there to get it right and ride over the kerbs.

"Last but not least, you have the Wall of Champions," he said. "The final chicane. Another legendary circuit corner on the calendar!"

Sainz made his début for Renault in last year's United States Grand Prix after being loaned out by Toro Rosso. He's looking forward to getting back to North America next week.

"Montréal is one of my favourite cities to visit on the Grand Prix calendar," he said. "I really enjoy it there!

"The entrance to the Paddock in Canada is unique," he said. "You have to walk on a floating bridge to cross the lake. It’s a cool race 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.