Sainz: We struggled quite a lot

The Spaniard passed newly-crowned four-time Champion Max Verstappen on lap 42 of 50 to claim the final step on the podium in third place. Meanwhile, his teammate Charles Leclerc overtook the Red Bull a few laps later to finish in P4.

In the end they were no match for the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, who secured the Brackley-based outfit's first one-two of the current campaign.

Nevertheless, Ferrari managed to close the gap to Championship leaders McLaren, who endured a subpar race with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri crossing the line in P6 and P7 respectively.

The Italian team are now just 24 points behind, while Red Bull are a further 30 points down on them. With only two rounds remaining in the season, three teams have a realistic chance at winning the Constructors' Title.

Sainz, who will move to Williams for the 2025 season, reflected on his ninth podium of 2024.

In a race report published by Ferrari, Sainz admitted that third place was what he and the team most likely deserved on pace. He said: "Considering the pace Mercedes had today I think we maximised the team's points.

The 30-year-old had higher aspirations for the Grand Prix, but tyre troubles put any chances of a victory to bed relatively quickly. He continued: "I was expecting to be more competitive after what we had seen in practice but we struggled quite a lot with graining today.

"We will keep fighting in the next races to keep the battle for the Constructors’ title open until the end. On to Qatar," concluded the Ferrari driver.

Leclerc echoed his teammate's sentiments, stating: "I finished the race where I started it today, so it wasn’t that exciting, but if you look at the details it was quite an eventful one. Unfortunately, we degraded the fronts on the first stint on Mediums, then we were able to come back on the Hards which were working better."

The Monegasque also congratulated Verstappen for winning the Drivers' Championship: "Big congratulations to Max. He deserves this championship title, he has had an amazing season and always maximised his results which has paid off for him.

"It gives us motivation to be even stronger next year and hopefully we can put him under some more pressure then. We will push hard in the last two races to try to finish the season ahead of McLaren," Leclerc said.

The Qatar Grand Prix commences Sunday 1 December at 16:00 GMT (19:00 local time).