Carlos Sainz Jr didn't expect points as McLaren had "no pace"

Sainz spent the majority of the race battling with Daniel Ricciardo outside of the top 10, and briefly dropped behind the Renault driver before repassing him after both had pitted.

He moved into the points under a late safety car when what Toro Rosso called a "miscommunication" on its pitwall meant the team was not ready to receive Daniil Kvyat, which subsequently delayed Alex Albon's stop and allowed Sainz to jump the rookie.

Sainz then pulled off separate overtakes on Kvyat and Romain Grosjean - having banged wheels with the Haas driver a lap before overtaking him - at the first corner when the race resumed to secure eighth.

"It was a strange race because halfway through the race, I was struggling to hold on in P11, I had Ricciardo on my back and I was struggling in the final sector with the rear end and the wind," said Sainz.

"Then after the safety car came out, we executed a good strategy - [we] profited from every opportunity we had to overtake the two Toro Rossos, a Haas and Ricciardo.

"I had to bring home some points, but honestly I thought they were not on the cards.

"Ricciardo was massively quicker than us in the final sector, and I couldn't keep him behind - at one point he made it by, we got him back, [then the] safety car came out.

"I think with the help of the crowd and wanting to go forward, I made it stick three times into Turn 1."

He added: "When you have no pace and you still manage to score points I think it's even more meritory because I did just three or four overtakings when I could, even held onto Kvyat on the last lap when he was on our tail."

McLaren introduced a significant aerodynamic upgrade at Barcelona, but Sainz said he had "no feeling with the car at all" in Sunday's race and suggested the car was still short of downforce in slower corners.

"Basically, we learned we need to improve in the low speed in the final sector," he said.

"We're not very strong there.

"I think the balance was not right in the car, so we need to check something massively, we need to find out why the pace was not there, but I congratulate everyone because we scored."