Carlos Sainz believes his ninth-place finish in the Canadian Grand Prix was a “strong result”, especially after a “mistake” in deciding to start Sunday’s race on the intermediate tyre.
The Williams driver only started P15 for Sunday’s 68-lap race in Montreal and took a gamble by deciding to start on intermediates with rain looming and slippery conditions.
But it soon proved to be the wrong call as the rain never materialised and Sainz was forced to pit at the end of Lap 2, which dropped him towards the back of the field.
“I think to come back from the back of the field to P9, I think is a very strong result for us,” said Sainz afterwards.
“My mistake because I did the call for starting on intermediates, when I took the decision with minutes to go, the track was wet, it was still raining.
“Probably didn’t know that it was going to stop within five minutes and there were going to be three formation laps that would dry out completely the track… [that] caught me out.
“My mistake, but from there… good that I managed to get a bit of hunger out of it and drive fast to bring home another top-10 for us.”
The result marked Sainz’s third P9 finish in four Grands Prix this season after a slow start for Williams under the new-for-2026 regulations.
Sainz in particular was pleased with his pace, having been able to match the times posted by the McLaren’s of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who had started from the second row but also opted to start on intermediates.
“That second stint after the inter call, when I put the medium tyre on, I was at times as quick as the McLarens, as quick as the top cars in terms of pace when the track conditions were still a bit slippery,” added Sainz.
“I was honestly really strong on that second stint which allowed me to get my race sorted. Then onwards, it was just more about maintaining P9 because unfortunately the top three cars of the midfield were a bit too far away due to my mistake.”
