Sainz: "I nearly vomitted"

The Spaniard finished 10th in Melbourne but his closest enemy turned out to be himself.

Carlos Sainz had a battle with himself during the Australian Grand Prix. The Renault driver reported on his team radio that he was feeling unwell during the race and confirmed after the chequered flag it was a drinks bottle water pump issue.

"We had a problem with the water pump and during the first 10 or 15 laps it was squirting water on my face, so I was drinking too much water," Sainz said.

"When the safety car came out I had a lot of water in my stomach and was moving from side to side and I was feeling it a lot in the corners and I wasn't feeling well.

"I managed to survive as best I could and I reached the finish."

"Very uncomfortable. With the g-forces we have this year, having the stomach full of water, moving from side to side, I don't know if it was a stomach cramp or what, but I wasn't comfortable."

Teammate Nico Hulkenberg finished 7th ahead of Sainz to record valuable points for Renault after both Haas cars retired due to loose wheel nuts. He was fighting with Fernando Alonso prior to the virtual safety car however his feeling sick prevented him from pushing more.

"It was a consequence of the rest. If you are not comfortable, in the end you are not feeling good, you can't push to the limit, and you are not 100 percent, and that's what happened today," he added.

"So I'm half happy to have been able to score a point because there was a moment in the race where I nearly started vomiting during the safety car, so I struggled."