Carlos Sainz believes blame for the lap one disarray at the Las Vegas Grand Prix lies with the oil spilt on the track from a parade lap car. The drivers traditionally tour the circuit prior to the start of the race on the back of vintage cars to give the attending crowd a chance to see the drivers The car that was to bring Lewis Hamilton around the track in Las Vegas broke down and spilt oil on the starting grid. The oil was cleaned and a layer of dust was placed over the spillage before the start of the race but it gave a theoretical disadvantage to those starting on the left side of the grid, where the oil was deposited. At the first corner, race-winner Max Verstappen ran off the track and directly forced pole-sitter Charles Leclerc wide. Fernando Alonso spun around further back while Sainz himself made contact with Lewis Hamilton and was demoted to the rear of the field. “I saw a lot of oil from the cars that we use to do a drivers' parade which is another thing for the FIA to look at,” Sainz told media including RacingNews365. “It is not fair that all the oil was on the inside line. [With] the dirty track already being there and on top of that, we put cars that are leaking oil into the track one hour before the race. “It's unacceptable and it probably caused a lot of the crashes into Turn 1.”

Sainz rues difficult weekend

Sainz was forced into a recovery driver after being demoted to the rear of hte field at the end of the first lap. The Spaniard classified in sixth place while team-mate Charles Leclerc contended for the race victory before having to settle for second place. Sainz endured a difficult weekend in Las Vegas as he was forced to take a grid penalty for changing a Control Electronics unit after his Power Unit was damaged by a loose drain cover during FP1. “Obviously [I'm] regretting not being able to be up there fighting for the win,” Sainz stated. “It looked like this weekend the car was at least able to do a podium. It would've been a fun race.”

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