Out-going Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz was left saddened by how his final Formula One race with the team ended, after crashing out of the Japanese Grand Prix.
Sainz ended his swansong race with the Faenza-based outfit in the barriers, having spun out on the opening lap in Suzuka. The Spaniard, who will complete the rest of the 2017 season with Renault, had started from the back row of the grid after making a series of engine component changes following his failure in Malaysia.
"Definitely I'm not happy and it's a sad way to end," Sainz said. "I want to apologise to everyone because it's not ideal way to end a very nice story. But I need to remain the positives of these three years, not because of this last race am I going to go away sad.
"It's very important to be extremely proud of what we achieved these three seasons together and I'm leaving behind a great group of people, great human beings, great professionals, great friends."
Sainz said his crash was the result of taking early risks in his attempts to make up ground from his lowly grid position.
"I started on the soft tyre, obviously this gives you a bit less grip, and I was expecting we had to gain places at the start. It was a one-stop race with not much going on. I tried to risk it, normally it works, but it didn't.
"I went around the outside at Turn 6, found a lot more dust and dirt than I was expecting, I had a snap and lost the car. Nothing to regret, I was pushing hard for the team in this last race. I needed to risk at the start and it didn't work."