Carlos Sainz has revealed that he had to overcome brake issues during the Japanese Grand Prix, where he came home to finish in tenth place. The Spaniard scored a point for himself and Renault and described the result as having "great value".

Renault is currently attempting to keep Haas behind for fourth place in the constructor's standings. Renault almost didn't score at Suzuka however, as Sainz stated that he was suffering from brake related problems throughout the race.

“I had to push, but the only issue there was the brakes,” he said. “I was having a lot of pulling on the braking. I had one disc that was working and what disc that was not, so I had to be very careful while following [Gasly] because I had really no grip under braking. But I knew that if I managed to get a couple of good brakings I could do the move easily.”

Haas now sits eight points behind Renault after Romain Grosjean too collected points for the American squad. Despite having his issues during the race, Sainz admits that it was still enjoyable from his side.

“It was good fun to be honest,” he said. “A very good race from the team, from my side. Really good start, which is exactly what we needed to get into the back of the points. Then overtaking [Brendon] Hartley at the beginning of the race, then stopping for the medium tyres and overtaking the Saubers and all those cars was great fun. For us, a point here was simply the best we could do, so it’s a very good result for us.”