Carlos Sainz discloses three crucial blows that left him fuming after the Miami GP

Carlos Sainz, shared an in-depth account of his Miami GP misfortunes that left him multiple spots from his stellar qualifying position. The Williams driver lamented lost potential as his teammate Alex Albon went on to post yet another top-five placing.

At sixth, Sainz lined up one spot higher than his teammate, but the Spaniard fell short to Albon's race-pace, as the duo swapped places multiple times during Sunday's 57-lap event. The first of those swaps witnessed a touch-and-go moment as Albon made contact with Sainz's left front during the race-start.

In another close call, Sainz banged wheels with his replacement at Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton. The 30-year-old made a desperate lunge on the inside to overtake Hamilton, but the 7x F1 champion, moved under braking to force Sainz out of his way. The whole drama unfolded just one corner before the checkered flag, further underscoring the Williams' potential.

Reflecting upon the same, Sainz spoke to the media post-race and outlined the crucial blows that derailed his momentum.

"The start itself went well, but I was starting on a four-lap used tyre, when the others were on new tyres and I knew this was going to make me slower on the first stint and vulnerable. On top of that I picked up damage in Turn 3 with Alex at the start with slight contact, so I just made my first stint obviously very difficult with the used tyre and the damaged car," Carlos Sainz said via Formula1.com

"And we were one of the first ones to stop. That gave a much shorter pit stop time to all the cars that stopped three laps later with the VSC. And in the end, I was vulnerable again… That’s why I’m frustrated," he concluded.

Carlos Sainz ultimately finished ninth on the grid, wedged between the the two Ferraris and Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda. In his debut season with Williams, the Spaniard is yet to find his footing with the team, while Albon has surged ahead in the standings with 30 points and a top-ten ranking.

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Carlos Sainz eyes more opportunities to fight at the front

With Williams consistently placing among the top-ten, it's steadily earning the reputation of the "best of the rest". The team's strong driver pairing with Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz has kept them in contention with the top teams, while the midfield are often fading behind their wake.

Speaking about the team's current momentum, Sainz expressed his pride and said,

"Very happy and proud as a team to be fighting the top four cars.....There will be tracks where we might have this opportunity again and I want to be the first driver to maximise it."

Carlos Sainz experienced a dismal start to the season with a DNF under wet conditions at Australia. He fell into the top-ten in the following race at Shanghai, after the Ferrari duo were disqualified from a post-race inspection. With a pointless outing in Bahrain and yet another DNF in Saudi Arabia, Sainz's prospects were looking weak.

His top-ten result at Miami would give his some much needed respite as he heads into the next race at Imola, a track where he placed a career-best finish of fifth with Ferrari.