Sainz explains incident with Tsunoda that led to retirement from ‘frustrating’ Bahrain Grand Prix

Carlos Sainz has given his take on the collision with Yuki Tsunoda that ultimately led to his retirement from the Bahrain Grand Prix, a race that the Spaniard admitted had been “frustrating” after earlier looking promising.

Having started from P8 on the grid, Sainz initially made a good start before slipping backwards as the laps progressed, engaging in some close battles along the way with the likes of Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton as he tried to stay ahead.

After the race had reached its halfway point, the Williams driver was fighting with Yuki Tsunoda when a slide from the Red Bull driver caused contact between the two, scattering debris in the process after the FW47 sustained damage in the incident.

While he initially continued to run – with a 10-second time penalty for forcing Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli off the road at the Safety Car restart further adding to his woes – Sainz went on to retire the car, bringing his tough evening in Sakhir to a close.

2025 Bahrain Grand Prix: Tsunoda and Sainz make contact after battling at Turn 1

“To be honest we were just fighting the whole race with cars that were quicker than us,” Sainz reflected after the Grand Prix. “A bit frustrating because you are there with them, you try to stay with them, but then you deg your tyres more trying to keep up with them because you are pushing a bit harder.

“And then I started to go backwards after giving it a shot to staying with them. It got a bit hectic at one point with Yuki, sent a big one down the inside and then exiting Turn 1 I think he lost the rear and touched me.

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“It cost me the damage and then from then on I had a second to a second and a half of car damage, so I had to retire.

“[It’s a] bit of a shame, because at points it looked like we could have a good haul of points for the first time in the year, but we still lack a bit of pace and we still need to improve a few things, but we are on the right track.”

BAHRAIN, BAHRAIN - APRIL 13: Carlos Sainz of Spain driving the (55) Williams FW47 Mercedes leads — Sainz battled with a number of drivers, including Tsunoda, during the Bahrain Grand Prix

Pushed on whether it was fair to say that the weekend had still marked a step forward across the board as he continues to adapt to the Williams car, Sainz responded: “Yes, just in the midfield it is so difficult to get points if you don’t get everything perfect.

“And in the race, trying to fight faster cars, we used a bit too much use of our tyres and then little by little we started to go backwards.

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“But when I recovered the pace and I went to overtake Yuki to get back in the points and get the race back going, we had this damage. Still not a clean weekend, which is what I was looking for, but I feel like we are getting closer.”