Sainz believes P6 was possible without safety car

Carlos Sainz believes that he still could have achieved his sixth-place finish at the British Grand Prix regardless of the safety car that was deployed.

Sainz started the race on the medium tyres and managed to pass both Alfa Romeos in the first handful of laps, before setting his sights on the cars ahead.

The Spaniard used his more durable tyres to his favour as he allowed those ahead on the soft compound to degrade and lose time before setting fast laps after they pitted. 

"The start, getting the two Alfa's out of the way was my one and only target for the first three laps.

"From there on in, I just let the soft runners go away a bit, let them degrade and once they pitted, I started doing green sectors, a bit like in Austria.

"And then we were on a one-stop and go the bonus of a safety car, but even without it, with the one-stop strategy we were about to do, we were in a very good place."

Sainz pleased after 'tight' Ricciardo battle

Sainz admits that it was close at the end with Daniel Ricciardo, who was charging down on him on the same compound, but with what Sainz believes was a quicker car.

"To the end it was tight. I felt like I had a lot of pace and I was flying but suddenly I saw Ricciardo out there, he was flying also, mainly on the straights," Sainz said.

"They were dragging a lot less and could carry a lot more speed into the straights. I had to play a lot with the switches and with my lines, but in the end we managed to keep him behind."