Sainz apologises after crash: 'Sorry mechanics, for the extra work'

Carlos Sainz seemed to start the weekend excellently in Monaco with a first time in FP1 and a third time in Friday's second practice session, but a crash in the last 15 minutes during FP2 meant the day did not go completely to plan. In a press release from his team, the Ferrari driver responded to the slip-up.

Sainz and Ferrari were extremely competitive in Monaco. The Italian team was just a tenth slower than Max Verstappen, who finished day one. No doubt this played a part as Sainz gave his thoughts on the opening day in the Principality. "In general, I think the day was positive. We were fast in both sessions and the car feels okay on track. There are still a couple of things I want to try tomorrow on the set-up to try and improve, but overall we are quite competitive."

'Not ideal'

Of course, there was that one downside: Sainz put his car into the wall, which resulted in a red flag. "Obviously, it was not ideal to finish the session in that way, after a small miscalculation trying to find the limit. Sorry to the team and the mechanics for the extra work," Sainz said.

Teammate Charles Leclerc was not happy with the day, the Monegasque revealed. "It was a bit of a difficult day as the car is not doing exactly what it is supposed to do. So we need to take a good look at the set-up on my car and then work on it to ensure I have the right feeling with it tomorrow. Here it’s all about qualifying, so we didn’t do any race runs, just focusing on preparing for qualifying in the best way possible."