Carlos Sainz left the 2026 F1 Miami GP with a strong P9 points finish, despite an early ‘frustrating’ moment involving Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
The Spaniard’s Grand Prix began well, sitting P14 in his upgraded Williams after claiming his best qualifying result of the season so far. Sainz made his way up the field during a chaotic race start, where Verstappen spun at Turn 2, dropping seven places and rejoining behind the Williams duo of Sainz and Alex Albon.
During the final few corners of lap 1, an eager Verstappen made a bold move down the inside of Sainz at Turn 17, resulting in a close wheel-to-wheel battle that allowed both Verstappen and Albon through. Gasly and Bearman also got by heading down to turn 1.
Sainz ultimately recovered and made his way through to a P9 finished, with his teammate behind in P10, claiming Williams’ first double-points of the season.
Sainz details recovery drive to P9
Speaking after the 2026 F1 Miami GP in the print media pen, Sainz reflected on how he managed the early-race chaos around him, highlighting that composure was the key to his result.
“Yeah and no. I mean, I had probably the best start of the year again and had amazing momentum into Turn 1, then Max in front of me had the spin, so I had to back off and maybe Lawson overtook me because of that. And then Verstappen did a bit of a crazy move into 17, nearly took me off. From there, Alex and another Haas passed me. But then I kept it calm,” he said.
With the race featuring four DNFs, a Safety Car, and several aggressive battles, Sainz continued: “People were racing really hard today. I don’t know why they woke up. I don’t want to crash many people out there. Kept it out of trouble.
“Once the race settled, I picked up one by one and then pulled away and finished P9. So I’m happy with that. Solid race. Another solid Sunday for me. That’s the third one. So yeah, quite happy.”
“What he did there is borderline”: Sainz on Verstappen’s move
Following the lap 1 incident with Verstappen, an unhappy Sainz quickly reacted over the team radio, saying, ‘he pushed me off. He thinks he can do whatever he wants just because he’s racing the midfield.’
Commenting on the heated moment after the race, Sainz shared: “Yeah, no disrespect, but what [Verstappen] did into 17 is almost like a launch, knowing that because we’re the midfield, we’re not going to fight him and we’re going to have to let him by at some point. But what he did there is borderline.”
When asked whether he believes that Verstappen’s move was influenced by his position of having to race in the midfield rather than at the front, Sainz concluded:
“No, probably a bit of frustration of the spin and trying to get back to the front as much as possible. It’s racing. I’m not going to criticise him too much. It’s just at that point it felt like we were going to crash and he took me off the track and I lost three positions. It was frustrating.”
