Sainz: I had lost confidence in the car after practice

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has conceded that he has lost confidence in his SF-24 after several balance issues hindered him during the practice session at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Sainz struggled for pace over the weekend of the Monaco Grand Prix. The Spaniard was unable to match his team-mate Charles Leclerc's during Friday's practice sessions, but he managed to take a step forward for the all-important qualifying session, securing the third starting position behind the Monegasque and McLaren's Oscar Piastri.

In the race, Sainz had a great getaway at the start and looked to challenge Piastri for P2, but the pair collided at the exit of the Sainte Devote corner.

The Spaniard suffered a puncture, but he managed to recover his starting position as the race was stopped on the opening lap following the heavy crash between Haas drivers Nico Hulkenberg, Kevin Magnussen and Red Bull racer Sergio Perez.

Speaking of his weekend, Sainz added: "From my side, I've seen the same Charles that I've seen any other year in Monaco. Obviously, it's your home race, so you obviously can tell he's a very busy man when he's in Monaco. But nothing different.

"He's a guy that he's always been super quick around Monaco. He has performed exceptionally well. The only thing I saw different is that he seemed to be in Q3 run two already in FP1, Q3 run two mode. And yeah, I had my moments trying to get to that level of pushing and then I lost confidence.

"And then while we are normally within half a tenth of each other, this week in those two, three moments in FP1 and FP2 it just put me a step behind in confidence and I couldn't quite get close enough in quali.'"

Asked whether Ferrari can display similarly strong performance in the rest of the season, the Madrid-born racer said: "I think we will have… I think Ferrari we will have our opportunities in these sort of tracks.

"I think McLaren will have their opportunities, but when I talk about a normal track we can talk about maybe a Barcelona. Canada, I think is quite specific but a Barcelona or any European track, where I consider it to be a normal track, I still think Red Bull will be favourites, but I don't think they'll dominate like they used to do.

"And I think that's good news for the championship. And it's just worth being within a tenth or two in quali, that even if they're favourites, they cannot afford to do any mistakes.

"And that's where both Ferrari and McLaren, we can capitalise, which is a position that in Bahrain Race 1, no one was there to be there," Sainz concluded.