"We clearly struggled as a team" - Carlos Sainz claims to be 'a bit puzzled' by Ferrari's choices at 2022 F1 Hungarian GP

Carlos Sainz claims he was surprised and puzzled by Ferrari's lack of race pace at the 2022 Hungarian GP. The Italian team seemingly 'threw away' a possible 1-2 finish in Budapest as a result of their poor strategic choices, allowing Red Bull and Max Verstappen a sizable lead in both championships.

Sainz was hindered by yet another botched pitstop by the Prancing Horses, missing out on a possible P1 finish in Hungary. Nonetheless, the Spaniard was baffled by his team's lack of pace in cooler conditions after being the dominant force in Friday's race simulations.

The driver claims the team has to analyze how their car behaves in cooler temperatures in order to effectively fight Red Bull and Mercedes after the summer break.

Carlos Sainz expressed his puzzlement, saying:

"We clearly struggled as a team. Today I'm a bit puzzled because we expected to operate with race pace from Friday, but in lower temperatures it is clear there was something going on with the car and the tyres, and we were just not fast. Something to analyse and we need to regroup, see what we did wrong for these conditions, and come back after the summer break with a better package."

Carlos Sainz felt he had the pace to secure pole position at the 2022 Hungarian GP qualifying

Sainz felt he had the pace to secure the second pole position of his career at the 2022 F1 Hungarian GP. The Spaniard rued his Ferrari snapping late in Q3 after managing to secure only a P2 for Sunday's race. However, after finishing P4 in Sunday's main race, the driver missed out on yet another possible victory.

The 27-year-old was the most comfortable Ferrari driver on Friday, having outclassed his teammate, Charles Leclerc. His form carried into qualifying and the driver was all set for his second pole position in the sport when George Russell put in a stellar lap, taking P1 instead.

Speaking in his post-session interview in Parc-ferme with Naomi Schiff for Sky Sports F1, Carlos Sainz said:

“I am feeling better and better every race and every qualifying session. Today, I felt like I had the pace for pole position, but it went away from us in the final sector with a few snaps through the lap. Congratulations to George [Russell], because he must have done a pretty good lap there in the end and we'll race from P2 tomorrow.’’

Russell managed to pip Carlos Sainz in the race as well to score another podium for Mercedes. The Spaniard's slow pitstop dropped him down to P4, where he finished the race.