Carlos Sainz reveals he had made a significant breakthrough with his race starts after catapulting his Ferrari from fifth to second at the start of the F1 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Heading into the sprint race, he initially qualified sixth on the grid behind AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly. He was later bumped up to fifth due to Hamilton's disqualification from qualifying that saw him drop to the back of the F1 grid.

Given the ability to choose any type of tire, Sainz opted for soft tires as opposed to his teammate Charles Leclerc, who sported the medium tires. The Spanish driver had a blistering start which launched his Ferrari in the mix for a podium finish—taking his car all the way to second place heading into turn 1 of Interlagos. Sainz later reveals his commitment to working endlessly on his F1 race starts.

Via F1:

“[My start] was a really good one,” he said. “It’s been a point to improve for me since I joined Ferrari. I have always felt my starts weren’t as good as they were at McLaren and Renault. I have been working on them – and it was finally good to see it pay off today.”

However, he was unable to keep F1 championship leader Max Verstappen from overtaking him in the same lap. He was met with the challenge of keeping Sergio Perez behind him for the rest of the sprint race—which he successfully overcame—securing himself a third place finish.