Bad luck appears to be the only luck that Carlos Sainz knows how to experience, as the Spaniard was forced to retire from the United States Grand Prix at the end of the opening lap.
Sainz started the race at the Circuit of the Americas on pole, after an excellent lap in qualifying saw him pip both Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen.
With Leclerc having been awarded a grid penalty following an engine change, the 28-year-old looked set to be Verstappen’s biggest challenger for victory in Austin, Texas.
Sainz may have gone on to claim his second win of the season, had he gotten past the first corner without being hit.
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The Ferrari driver took a wide line into the extremely tight Turn One, before attempting to cut back underneath Verstappen, who had the inside line.
Unfortunately for Sainz, he went across the front of George Russell, who hit the Spaniard as a result, which spun the pole sitter.
Russell arguably had nowhere to go and was simply a passenger; however, he was still awarded a five-second time penalty for hitting Sainz.
Sainz tumbled to the back of the grid, where he then circulated back to the pits, before retiring from the race.
The blame was, of course, put on Russell, with Sainz believing the images of the collision “speak for themselves”.
“One guy that wasn’t in the battle came out of nowhere and bumped into me,” Sainz told Sky Sports F1.
“I don’t think you need many words, I think you need images to see exactly what happened and the images speak for themselves.
“I was in the middle of a fight with Max into Turn 1 and suddenly one guy that wasn’t in the battle came from nowhere and bumped into me so that’s it.
“Our starts haven’t been great because we have an inherent problem with this car, normally P2 in Austin is better than P1 we’ve seen that in many, many years here.
“My start wasn’t too bad if you compare it to the Mercs, it was Max [Verstappen] that got out really good.”
It represents Sainz’s sixth retirement of the season, leaving him just four points ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the Drivers’ Championship.
Two of Sainz’s DNFs this season have now been due to other drivers’ errors, as Sainz also retired from the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after being hit off the circuit by Daniel Ricciardo.
Sainz can accept that drivers make mistakes but is annoyed that yet again he’s “paid the price”.
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“I think driver mistakes are driver mistakes,” Sainz added to F1.com.
“And the problem is that I pay the price again.
“It follows a bigger trend over the whole year with our lap one that doesn’t allow me to do the race and doesn’t allow me to fight for a win or doesn’t allow me to keep learning from the car which is extremely frustrating and disappointing.”