Carlos Sainz believes his collisions with Nico Hulkenberg and Franco Colapinto that forced the Williams driver’s retirement in the closing stages of the Monaco Grand Prix were “borderline unacceptable”.
The Spaniard was on course for his third points finish in succession having been running 10th prior to the late red flag in Sunday’s 78-lap race, and was set to benefit as several drivers ahead were handed time penalties.
But Sainz’s race came to an end at the restart on Lap 70, as first he was hit by Hulkenberg’s Audi at the Loews Hairpin which pitched the Williams into the barrier.
With damaged suspension, Sainz was overtaken by several cars before being tipped into a spin by Colapinto’s Alpine at Portier and retiring, while Hulkenberg was handed a 10-second penalty for the initial contact.
“The few laps that I managed to push we showed some really serious race pace that allowed me to be fighting today for the points,” said Sainz.
“Unfortunately at the restart, some people decided to risk everything to try and get a point or two and I was the victim of people being very over-optimistic and doing a mistake that honestly is borderline unacceptable.
“Every year at Monaco, you get to Turn 6 [Loews Hairpin], there is a bunch up, you need to lift and you know you’re going to bump into the car in front because everyone is trying to get through that corner. Difficult to see how with so much experience we’re still able to do this kind of mistake and throw my race away.”
While Sainz failed to score, Williams team mate Alex Albon was able to salvage P8 in the final classification, having also helped Sainz by allowing him through and backing the field up to allow him to gain time before his pit stop.
“I’m not sure at the time I agreed with it just because it’s already difficult enough to keep cars behind, but with a deployment issue it was almost impossible and I thought I ruined it for us,” said Albon.
“I gave up a position to Arvid [Lindblad] and I thought at that point we’ve done all of that for nothing and I was frustrated at the time because I thought it was a silly way to give away an obvious points position.
“Luckily we made it work. I think P8 is a great result for us and it’s been maybe my best weekend so far this year so I’m very happy.”