McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl has apologised for a pit lane mistake that ended up wrecking Carlos Sainz' promising race on Sunday.
Sainz had qualified in fourth place for the Styrian Grand Prix, although he lost two positions early in the race to Valtteri Bottas and Alexander Albon.
However after that he settled into a secure fifth place and looked to be on his way to pick up solid championship points. That is, until he came in for his pit stop on lap 32.
A problem changing the right rear wheel cost him dearly, and when he emerged from pit lane he found himself down in 13th.
“We want to apologise to Carlos for the issue we had at his first pit-stop, which made his race more difficult than it should’ve been," Seidl said after the finish.
"The delay cost him several track positions and we sent him into heavy traffic, which ruined his tyres and didn’t allow him to fight for the position he deserved to be in today."
“A very disappointing day for me," Sainz himself said. "We missed out on big points after a problem at the pit-stop which meant we came out of the pits in the middle of traffic.
"I had to push too hard too early to try to recover the gap, and that drained my battery and ultimately compromised my tyres for the second part of the race. One of those days when nothing goes your way.
"We missed out on a good P5 today [but] we win and we lose as a team, so we’ll try to fight back in Hungary next week.”
While Sainz eventually fought back to eighth place, he then gave up a position to his team mate Lando Norris who was on fresher tyres and had more chance of attacking the cars in front.
"Great teamwork between the two drivers swapping on track when it was needed," Seidl said. "Lando showed he’s a fighter despite the pain he suffered during the weekend.
"He continued to perform and stepped up when it really mattered, especially in the second half of the race and again with some exciting final laps.
"Carlos didn’t give up, and he did a great job securing the fastest lap," Seidl continued, thanking engine providers Renault for giving them the power needed to keep both drivers in contention throughout.
"It's great to see both cars finish in the points, confirming we’re making progress in the right direction," he said.
"We could see that both in dry and wet conditions we have a car that can fight with the competitors around us, which is obviously very encouraging moving forward.
"It will be very interesting to see if we can now carry this performance and momentum into Hungary and to other tracks with different characteristics."
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