On an off-kilter weekend for the otherwise dominant Red Bull squad, Sainz and Ferrari capitalised by nailing every session, resulting in a key pole position on the twisty street layout, less than a tenth ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and team-mate Charles Leclerc.
He then converted that into a win with a cool and shrewd race, first lowering the pace to prevent drivers behind from attempting an undercut into traffic. In the closing stages Sainz then deliberately allowed the chasing McLaren of Lando Norris to close and use DRS to keep the faster Russell behind.
