Sainz left feeling "hurt" after missed opportunities in 2018

Carlos Sainz claims he was "really hurt" by the missed opportunities that occurred during his final Formula 1 season at Renault. The Spaniard will move to McLaren next season, replacing legend Fernando Alonso.

And it was Alonso he beat on the final day of the season to sneak inside the top 10 of the drivers' standings. His Renault car suffered some mechanical problems causing him to miss out on some 'best of the rest' finishes, and it was these results which hurt Sainz.

"I think we achieved it. It's just something that really hurts, that the races that we were about to get a lot of points and show that we were doing it very well, like Mexico or Paul Ricard, where we were leading the midfield clearly, we just didn't get the reward," Sainz told Autosport.

Even though Sainz finished fifth in Azerbaijan, he pinpoints Suzuka as his best performance of the season. He finished 10th, but qualified 13th on the grid.

"Probably my best whole race weekend was Suzuka. I got a point, I feel that weekend I extracted everything there was from that car, I overtook four or five people in the race. It was a difficult weekend for the team but I still managed to bring home one point," added Sainz.