The Spaniard Carlos Sainz (McLaren), who arrived in Abu Dhabi after signing his first podium in Formula One two Sundays - at the end of the third Grand Prix of Brazil -, declared Thursday at the Yas Marina circuit, headquarters of the last Championship race, which "always" thought "that the podium was going to arrive, sooner or later; but not in 2019".

"I've always thought that the podium was going to arrive, sooner or later, but I didn't expect it to be in 2019 ; because of the situation McLaren was in and, obviously, how difficult it is to get a podium in Formula One today in day, "said Sainz, 25, who will complete his fifth season in the Queen category in Abu Dhabi, the best of his career to date.

"But what is clear is that I knew that the podium, sooner or later, was going to arrive," said the talented Madrid driver, who occupies seventh place in the World Cup, with the same points (95) as the sixth, the French Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso); and that aspires to put the icing on his best season in F1 this weekend in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. "Aspiring to finish sixth in the World Cup is our goal . It will not be easy. But the simple fact of being here fighting for sixths demonstrates the season we have done," he said.

"On Sunday you have to go out to play; and try to achieve a goal that was impossible at the beginning of the season," said the son of the double Spanish world rally champion of the same name, whose perception of the season will not change, even if it ended seventh or eighth in the final general.

"No, it doesn't change. The important thing is that we end up fighting to be sixth, not if we end up being it or not. Because there are two drivers ( Gasly and the Thai Alexander Albon , who exchanged cars, taking the second Red Bull from the first to half season) who have made ten races in a team where the worst thing they could do was a fifth or a sixth, "he said.

"The best I could do in many races was a seventh. So, in that sense, it makes me happy and proud to fight for the sixth," Sainz said Thursday in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.

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