Sunday, 30 July 2023
-       Race: P19, 23 laps

• Carlos Sainz retired in Spa-Francorchamps due to the damage that his car sustained in an incident in the first corner of the race.
• Fourth on the Starting Grid, the Ferrari race driver was attacking Lewis Hamilton through the inside line of La Source when he was hit by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri on the inside.
• The violence of the impact opened a hole in the right sidepod and broke the floor of the SF-23, and from then on the pace of the car was heavily compromised.
• Carlos stayed on track hoping for a red flag that would have enabled his team to repair the car, but in the end he retired on Lap 23 to save mileage.

QUOTES:
"Not the way I wanted to finish the first part of the season. Hamilton stayed behind Perez and I attacked him on the inside. Then came the contact with Oscar and that was it, a racing incident, but in my opinion Oscar was way too optimistic as he was never side by side with me and making that move from behind has never really worked here in Spa. I’m disappointed, but it’s also part of racing".

"On a positive note, it looked like the pace was good today so congrats to the team and Charles on an encouraging result. We need to keep pushing hard to make sure we come back strong after the break and have a good second half of the season".

COMING UP:
Dutch GP, Circuit Zandvoort – 25-27 August 2023