A late safety car enabled the Ferrari racer to finish on the podium despite having to make an early pit stop because of a problem with the brake ducts.

Since Mercedes was “undefeatable” at the Brazilian Grand Prix, according to Carlos Sainz, Ferrari was in “defensive mode.”

The Ferrari racer was put on the back foot as he had to make an immediate pit stop because of a problem with his brake ducts.

Later, Sainz was assisted toward the finale by a late safety car that Lando Norris called out, which allowed him to pass Sergio Perez in the last laps of the race for a podium finish.

The Spaniard predicted that Mercedes would contend for the victory in Abu Dhabi considering their latest performance in a post-race interview.

“We’re clearly on a bit of a defence mode because their car was untouchable today. They [Mercedes] was simply the quickest car, quicker than the Red Bull,” he said after the race.

“I think it’s been a few weekends like that, in Abu Dhabi we need to expect them to win. And we need to either do the damage limitation, or go for the win ourselves.”

Early pitstop caused by visor tear-off in brake duct

Owing to a visor tear-off getting stuck in his brake ducts and needing to be removed before it led to a breakdown, Sainz was required to make an early pit stop.

The brakes on fire at the beginning of the race forced us to end suddenly, which required us to commit to a three-stop strategy, he continued.

“That maybe today wasn’t the fastest is given the degradation but from there I pushed flat out to catch Checo.

“We had a good run on him, good podium after starting P7 and I think we can be happy with that.”

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Brazilian GP, Brazilian Grand Prix, F1, F1 2022, Formula 1, Mercedes, Grand Prix, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari