Carlos Sainz takes great pride in continually leading the midfield battle as he tallies up his best season in Formula 1 to date.

The McLaren driver currently sits sixth in the Drivers' standings ahead of Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, who have driven for the superior Red Bull team at different stages in 2019.

His total of 76 points after 17 races is comfortably the highest he's achieved in a single year since debuting in 2015 and it is the nature of his results which he is most enjoying.

“Yeah, it’s quite a lot of satisfaction obviously because we didn’t know coming into the year more or less where we were going to be," he said of his points total.

“Scoring so many points, seeing the hard work of the team, paying off and putting together, whenever we’re in the points, solid points finishes – P6s, P7s, P5s. It’s really good news.

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“We’re still very far from where we want to be," he noted. "We want to make good progress in the next couple of years but at least this year we made a very big step forward and that’s a good starting point.”

Sainz has finished as the top midfield driver in six races so far, including the past two, and while that might not seem a huge deal given McLaren has been the fourth-best team, he agrees those results feel like "victories".

“It does, that’s why when sometimes people ask me ‘well another best of the rest’, it sounds a bit disappointing to me because it’s actually really tough to keep doing it every weekend, even after three DNFs.

“I was wanting to get back in a run and these last two, three weekends have been very strong, and honestly I’m very proud of it.”

After his latest success in Suzuka, finishing fifth, Carlos also agreed he is in the "best shape" of his F1 career to date.

"I would say so, I’m not going to lie. Today I thought about it during the race when I was pushing to hold off Leclerc and suddenly they told me the lap times, and I said ‘ooh, I must be driving quick!’

“At the end of the race, I said to the team thanks for a great car all weekend, very proud to be finally a bit more than best of the rest.

“We were definitely a step clear this weekend, and also cheers for a decent driver!”