Lando Norris, left, and Carlos Sainz Jr., right, finished fourth and third, respectively, for McLaren after Mereceds’ Lewis Hamilton was dealt a penalty in Brazil.
Carlos Sainz Jr. secured his first career Formula 1 podium after he was promoted to third position following Lewis Hamilton’s time penalty for late-race contact with Alex Albon.
Prior to the Brazilian Grand Prix, Sainz had a previous best finish of fourth place – a result he managed for Toro Rosso in the 2017 Singapore Grand Prix. It was also the first time a McLaren driver has finished in the top three since both Jenson Button and Kevin Magnussen stood on the podium at the 2014 Australian Grand Prix.
The achievement is made all the more impressive when considering that Sainz started from last place on the grid after a problem with his McLaren prevented him from taking part in qualifying on Saturday.
“Yes! What a day,” said Sainz. “It’s a weird first podium not being there straight after the race, but I’m extremely happy with our race today. To finish P3 coming all the way from the back of the grid was a big challenge, but we fought until the end with everything we had! It was a very eventful race and I think I was the only car to do a one-stop strategy. It was really difficult to hold the other midfield cars behind after the two safety car restarts, but I managed to defend my position well and took advantage of what happened at the front of the race.
“A good first stint, a great pit stop from the guys and a very challenging and long stint to bring it home and finish P3 for the first time in my career. Congrats to the whole team, here and back in Woking! My first podium is obviously very special but we need to keep pushing to step up there on pure pace! That’s what we’re really here for, that has to be our goal!”
Having been awarded their promotion several hours after the race finished, Sainz and his McLaren team were unable to join in with the official podium celebrations, so they headed up to the podium to stage their own party.
For a period, there was some doubt as to whether Sainz would take the position as he himself was one of a number of drivers under investigation for using DRS under yellow flag conditions when Valtteri Bottas retired his Mercedes from the race.
Although the race stewards were looking into the situation, no formal investigation was ever announced and the results have now been made official.
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