Sainz maximises result for Mclaren

Mclaren had played down expectations ahead of the Spanish GP, but Carlos Sainz Jr enjoyed a good run at his home circuit to claim sixth place thanks to a well-executed soft-soft-medium tyre strategy.

Sainz qualified seventh and was able to maintain that in the early stages. He moved into sixth when Alex Albon made an early stop for the hard tyre and, after he returned to the circuit behind the Red Bull following his own stop for another set of softs, Sainz used the greater grip available to pass Albon on lap 29.

Sainz cleared Renault’s Esteban Ocon a lap later, but didn’t have enough in reserve to keep the recently pitted Sergio Perez behind and had to concede the position. Sainz pitted to collect his medium tyres at the end of lap 41, and was able to keep Albon at bay with some inchperfect defending around Turns 3 and 4.

This proved vital when Sebastian Vettel came into view, and Sainz powered past on the start/finish straight to cement sixth place.

Team-mate Lando Norris lost places to Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc at the start, and subsequently got bogged down in the midfield and could only collect 10th place and a solitary point for his efforts.