Carlos Sainz was 'pushing everything' in bid to overtake Max Verstappen in Montreal

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz has revealed how hard he felt he was pushing to try and get past Max Verstappen in the closing stages of the Canadian GP.

A Safety Car in the final third of the race bunched the field up and allowed Sainz to get a cheap pit stop for fresh tyres, meaning he was right up behind Max Verstappen with a grip advantage for the closing stages.

Indeed, the last 15 or so laps absolutely flew past as Sainz did all he could to hassle and harry Verstappen into a mistake but the Dutchman kept his cool, and the Ferrari man could not find a way through.

It was a great battle between the two, and a reminder of the talents Sainz has after what has been a difficult campaign for him so far, with him revealing post-race just how much he was pushing in trying to seal a first-ever Grand Prix victory:

“I was pushing flat out.

“I wasn’t leaving an inch to the walls under braking. I was pushing everything with the battery. I tried everything to pass Max.

“But today, we just didn’t have enough pace delta to get him close enough in the hairpin to then get him a bit out of line into the chicane.

“The positive thing is that we were quicker, we were faster all race. It was just that little bit more [we needed] to overtake around here.”

The two were out on their own in the final stages as they pushed one another along and it was ultimately Verstappen who held onto victory.

Sainz put in a class performance, though, and will hope to achieve much more like that in the coming races.