‘When you are racing, you always go for it’ – Sainz defends his race-ending move on Antonelli

Carlos Sainz has defended his race-ending overtaking attempt on Kimi Antonelli in the United States Grand Prix, and explained why he opted against "playing it safe" and banking the points for P8 in Austin.

Sainz has been on something of a hot streak with Williams in recent races, with a podium appearance in Singapore backed up with third place in the Austin Sprint on Saturday.

But a failed overtake on Antonelli denied the Spaniard the opportunity to keep his points streak alive. Diving to the inside at Turn 15, Sainz pounced as the door was left wide open, but converging lines and a lock-up from the Williams driver resulted in a collision, which spun Antonelli around, and caused Sainz to suffer suspension damage. The mishap came a handful of laps after Sainz pulled off the same move successfully against Oliver Bearman in the Haas.

Sainz will take a five-place grid penalty in Mexico, after the stewards in Texas found he was at fault for the incident.

“It didn’t quite work out the same way it did with Ollie [Bearman],” explained Sainz. “By then, I was in a good pace, I had a good feeling with the car, and I felt like it was a good opportunity to make a move.

“Unfortunately, with Kimi, it didn’t work out in the same way. I felt like Kimi was quite a bit more aggressive than Ollie on the defence and on the turn into the corner. That scared me at the time, which forced me to hit the brakes hard to avoid a collision. In the end, it didn’t matter, because I locked the brakes and I hit him and we caused an accident.

“It looks a lot worse from the outside than what it felt from the inside, and in the end, it’s a shame because we were very quick.”

Asked if the weekend felt like a missed opportunity, Sainz added: “It’s always the same with racing. I could have played it safe, been in P8, not tried a move on Kimi and followed him to the flag and brought four points to the team and celebrated that.

“In the end, when you are racing, you always want more, you always go for it. I went for it with Ollie, and it worked perfectly fine. It’s a corner where I have done multiple overtakes in the past, and I’ve never crashed. This time around, with Kimi, it didn’t quite work out. So it is what it is.”

On the other side of the garage, Alex Albon also had contact, after he touched with Gabriel Bortoleto at the first corner on the opening lap.

Albon was spun around and there after had a long afternoon, eventually finishing outside of the points in P14.

After explaining the Lap 1 incident was "no one's fault", Albon said the US Grand Prix was "a weekend to forget for me."

"I just felt a bit out of rhythm and never really comfortable with the car," he added.