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Sainz is as good as Verstappen - Rosberg

Nico Rosberg believes Carlos Sainz is as good as Max Verstappen but unable to show it in an inferior car to the Dutchman.

Verstappen and Sainz were rookie team-mates at Toro Rosso in 2015 and again at the start of this year before Verstappen was promoted to Red Bull in place of Daniil Kvyat after four races of the season. Sainz has been retained at Toro Rosso for another year after links with Ferrari and Renault, and Rosberg believes the two are closely matched.

"He is the Spanish hope, is very good, very strong, but the situation is difficult because the good car has been given to Verstappen," Rosberg told Spanish publication AS.

"But as I say Carlos is also very strong and against Verstappen did very well. His behavior was very similar ... they are as good as one another and I am convinced that he will be one of the good drivers, one of the important ones in the future."

Sainz pointed to a number of reliability issues in 2015 as he scored 18 points compared to 49 for team-mate Verstappen at Toro Rosso. The Spaniard was again trailing by nine points after the opening four rounds this year before the change in driver line-up, with Verstappen going on to secure one victory and five further podiums since that point.

So far, Sainz boasts a best result of sixth place this season - scored in Barcelona - as Toro Rosso's competitiveness has trailed off due to its use of a 2015-specification Ferrari power unit.

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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.