Fighting with a Red Bull and Ferrari made P5 the "nicest surprise" of 2019 for Carlos Sainz at the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Spaniard was once again dominant in leading the midfield at Suzuka, as McLaren took another step towards finishing fourth in the Constructors' standings.

With the self-dubbed 'smooth operator' living up to that moniker on a frantic Sunday.

“Honestly it’s been a perfect day,” Sainz said post-race.

“Qualifying lap was clean, the start was clean and then the race, I managed to extend the first stint a lot, and that gave me opportunities to be strong at the end of the race with the medium tyre.”

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But whereas 'best of the rest' would usually be enough for Sainz and McLaren, what made Suzuka different was being able to fight those front-running cars disrupted at the start.

“When Alex Albon and Charles Leclerc pitted, one in front and one behind me, to manage to hold on to their pace was probably the nicest surprise of the year, nicest surprise for the team," the second generation driver admitted.

"To manage to have that space, and to match the pace of Leclerc and Albon for those laps was very special."

Indeed Sainz finished within 10 seconds of the Red Bull, while a late pit-stop and post-race penalties dropped the Monegasque to P7.

As for teammate Lando Norris, his race was disrupted by a bold move by Alex Albon but that wasn't all that held the Briton back as he finished a lowly 13th.

“Everyone thinks there was a clash, there was no clash. In my eyes, there was no contact and he made a decent move," he said of Albon. "It must have been from quite a long way back.

“My brakes were overheating completely because of debris, which meant that I locked up the front right a little bit. I was under-rotating. He sent it from a long way back, fair play to him anyway.

"It could have been a crash or something worse, but I avoided it and came into the pits because I had to and that was pretty much it, I couldn’t do much more."