Sainz: Something was going on with the car and tyres

Sainz started the race from third on the grid, Charles Leclerc one place ahead in second, but finished fourth after a frustrating race for the team and the Tifosi where a highly probable one-two was thrown away, a four-six being the final result.

Ferrari had another one of their trademark strategy blunders, putting Leclerc on the treacherous Hard tyres, the Monegasque having to do a third stop for Softs, but ultimately finishing sixth.

Sainz wasn't given the Hards, but is claiming the F1-75, having shown great race pace in Friday's practice, was off on race day when the temperatures were cooler, in line with what team boss Mattia Binotto while Leclerc claimed his pace was fine.

"We clearly struggled as a team today," Sainz told Sky Sports F1 after the race. "[I'm] a bit puzzled, because we expected to have very good race pace coming from Friday, but it's clear that with these lower temperatures and track condition changes that we had today there was something going on with the car and the tyres that we just were not fast.

"Something to analyse – a day to probably look back, regroup, see what we did wrong for these kinds of conditions, and come back after the summer break with a better package," he added.

Sainz suffered from two slow pitstops as well, saying: "The first I think cost me the overcut on George [Russell], which obviously would have simplified the race from there onwards, because then you don't have dirty air," he explained.

"I could have, I think, done an overcut with a fast pit-stop, but it is what it is," he reflected. "We've been decent on pit-stops all year, but now and then a couple of pit-stops are failing us, and we need to analyse what we can do better.

"I don't know what we would have done better on strategy, but I can tell you that when the pace is bad like it was today, strategy is always difficult, because you don't have pace with any compound," Sainz said, which should be music to Binotto's ears.

"I guess the pit-stop cost me today twice, because from probably leading the race, I went to P3 and having to manage the tyres a lot, which was a shame, but do you include that as a strategy? I don't know.

"I think today we were just slow, and if you compare our pace against Red Bull on Friday, to our pace against Red Bull today, there was clearly something in the car and in the tyres that we were just not doing right," the Spaniard concluded.

Sainz enters the summer break fifth in the Formula 1 Drivers' Championship on 156 points , two points behind Mercedes' George Russell in fourth.