A problem with his car’s water pump made Carlos Sainz nearly vomit during the Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix.
The Spanish driver was fighting hard to hold on to his 10th place. Towards the end of the race, he told to his team about his nauseous stomach.
By the end of the race, he had successfully defended his place against Force India’s Sergio Perez despite his stomach issues and admitted it has been a ‘tough’ day.
“We had a problem with the water pump and during the first 10 or 15 laps it was squirting water on my face, so I was drinking too much water,” Sainz explained.
“When the safety car came out I had a lot of water in my stomach and was moving from side to side and I was feeling it a lot in the corners and I wasn’t feeling well.
“I managed to survive as best I could and I reached the finish.”
Explaining the feeling, he said it was: “Very uncomfortable. With the g-forces we have this year, having the stomach full of water, moving from side to side, I don’t know if it was a stomach cramp or what, but I wasn’t comfortable.”
The Spaniard started the race at eighth and lost his place to McLaren’s Fernando Alonso at Turn 9. Sainz attributed the mistake to his water-filled tummy.
“It was a consequence of the rest. If you are not comfortable, in the end, you are not feeling good, you can’t push to the limit, and you are not 100 percent, and that’s what happened today,” he added.
“So I’m half happy to have been able to score a point because there was a moment in the race where I nearly started vomiting during the safety car, so I struggled.”
Sainz’s teammate Nico Hulkenberg finished the race at seventh place, completing a double point finish for the French team.
