Gasly says Sainz deserves FR3.5 championship

Carlos Sainz Jr. deserves to be crowned Formula Renault 3.5 champion this weekend, reckons his Red Bull junior stablemate Pierre Gasly.

Sainz leads fellow Spaniard Roberto Merhi by 44 points heading into this weekend's Jerez finale, meaning that he only needs to finish seventh in race one on Saturday to clinch the title. FR3.5 rookie Gasly, who was eliminated from title contention last time out at Paul Ricard but can still catch Merhi for second in the points race, believes that Sainz would be a deserving champion.

"Before Paul Ricard, Carlos had a bad weekend in Hungary so I didn't know what to expect," Gaslu said. "But now it's done, and I think it's sure he will get the title. [He's had] seven wins in the year, even with some problems.

"We've all lost some points in places, but I think it's fair enough. Carlos deserves it. He is more experienced and he has been better than us this year. Now I have to look ahead and get the other Spanish guy."

SAINZ ON THE ATTACK

The championship leader believes it would be wrong to adopt a mindset of only trying to pick up the six points he needs to be champion.

"It would be a mistake to go to Jerez and just try to bring it home," said Sainz. "If you are in school and you go for an A, maybe you finish with a B. But if you aim for a B you might not get it and then you are angry with yourself.

"We have to go for the win, try to do a great job in front of my home crowd. It's not been easy – when you see Roberto coming it's difficult to maintain concentration and confidence, but we are made to overcome these moments.

"We managed to turn things around [with two wins in France], and we are back on form. This is the important thing."

Merhi, who had closed Sainz's lead down to just 16 points before the most recent round at Paul Ricard, believes he can at least make Sainz's life difficult this weekend.

"I have a chance, it's going to be close, I think," said the former DTM driver. "Carlos is quite far in front, but they [DAMS] are always strong at Paul Ricard. We'll see what we can do for Jerez.

"If you said at the start of the year that I would be fighting for the championship at the last race I would not believe you.

"We need to win both races, and if we do that I will be happy whatever happens in the championship."

Originally on Autosport.com