Sauber boys deliver points but Ericsson left 'fuming'

Sauber leaves Mexico with an additional eight championship points in its bag but it wasn't all smiles in the Swiss camp after Marcus Ericsson was forced to sacrifice his race to help team mate Charles Leclerc.

The Swede achieved on Sunday his sixth top-ten finish of the season when he finished ninth, two spots behind Leclerc, but the concerted team effort to ensure a double-points result led to a wing-man role that clearly rattled Ericsson.

"The plan was just to help Charles’ race basically," he explained.

"I was just sacrificing my race completely to help him. I wanted to box many laps earlier because I knew I was throwing away my race, but for the team and for Charles I had to try and keep these cars behind to help him open the gap.

"So I did that for the team but it was frustrating because it felt like I threw away my chances of points."

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Ericsson revealed that in the heat of the action, under his helmet, he was steaming.

"I was really fuming in the car. I was really getting frustrated, in a nice way," he said.

"I know we have to work for the team’s best, but for me it was a bit extreme. I felt like I’d thrown away my race, which was very frustrating.

"I’ve always been a team player. I’ve always done everything for the team, I always put the team first and I think that’s one of my abilities that people value a lot and I will always do that."

Ericsson's sacrifice nevertheless paid a good dividend for Sauber which has now overtaken Toro Rosso in the Constructors' standings, with a three-point edged.

"It is a huge deal for the team because that represents a lot of money for the team and for the development of it," noted Charles Leclerc.

"It’s not done yet, there are still two races to go and we need to make sure that we keep them behind but I think our recent performance is good and I hope we can keep it."

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