What had proved to be a decent race weekend for Mclaren driver Carlos Sainz, immediately turned to disappointment after his lockup forced the Q2 session to be red-flagged. The Spaniard had strong practice sessions until that point but will start the race in P15 after his incident in qualifying.

In the fight for midfield supremacy and with P3 at stake, it was the last thing that McLaren needed. Even more so, when Sainz spun off the track with a suspected rear brake failure, which, of course, the team will duly investigate.

Sainz also spoke out on the issue, and undoubtedly, he expressed disappointment with the eventual outcome. Safe to say, he has his work cut out, needing to make up the places in Sunday’s Bahrain GP to get a good result.

Carlos Sainz believes it can get “complicated” in the race tomorrow

Autosport quoted Carlos Sainz as saying, “It leaves us with very few options if we have lost it [the set of tyres] with that lock up.

“It leaves us with very small options for Sunday. That’s why I’m very angry, I’m sorry, but I’m very angry.”

Getting a respectable points finish all the way down from P15 would certainly be a tough ask. Although Sainz has done it before a few times, he believes the cars ahead of him will have the advantage, courtesy of the medium tires.

The Spanish driver added and said, “Yes, you can come back, but it gets very complicated.

Especially because the top ten is going to start with the medium, and those of us who start behind them won’t have any advantage over them,” concluded Sainz.

McLaren boss Seidl thinks there was ‘nothing’ Carlos Sainz could do

Although a detailed investigation into the issue will take place, McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl believes that it might have been a problem with the rear axle. Despite the analysis, the team will hope they can come back in with a shout, in what will effectively be a two-stop race.

Seidl stated, “We still don’t know, honestly, we have to analyse it.

“I think that the rear axle has locked up and there was nothing that Carlos could do.”

Sainz’s teammate Lando Norris fared relatively better, who will start P9 in Sunday’s race. The triple-header will require maximum focus from all the teams fighting in the midfield. It seems like McLaren are already one step behind in the race, and will have to get their act together at the earliest.