Toro Rosso should have been top five in Monaco - Tost

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Franz Tost says Toro Rosso should have been "at least" in the top five with Carlos Sainz in the Monaco Grand Prix.

Sainz was running competitively having started from sixth on the grid but lost out twice in the pit stops and ended up eighth. With Sergio Perez finishing third having jumped Sainz in the pit lane during one of the stops, team principal Tost feels eighth was an underwhelming result.

“It’s very disappointing to finish Carlos’ race only in P8, when we know we have a package which has the performance to be at least within the top five," Tost said. "The main reason for this result was the first pit-stop, during which we lost two seconds and where Perez, Vettel and Hulkenberg passed us.

"Therefore, Carlos ended up behind this train of cars and couldn’t use all the potential of the car, but he did a solid race and showed a really good performance."

In the second car Daniil Kvyat retired after a scrappy race, and Tost believes Toro Rosso has a lot to work on ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix.

"On Daniil’s car we had a problem with the software during the Safety Car period at the start of the race, where he was stuck in pit-limiter mode, driving at only 60kph. Although we changed the steering wheel, this didn’t help and he therefore was a lap down when the race was restarted. He then had a collision with another driver and did not finish the race.

"We all expected much more from this event in Monaco and we have to be more concentrated in order to prevent mistakes in the upcoming races.”

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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.