As the Monaco track dried up following a pre-race shower, Sainz decided not to pit for intermediates like team-mate Charles Leclerc and stayed out on wets until the track was ready for slicks.
The strategy gave him a great chance to score his maiden F1 win, but a slow out-lap behind Latifi meant Sainz was overcut by Red Bull's Sergio Perez, who emerged from his own pitstop one lap later in a lead he held to the finish.
Immediately after the race, Sainz said it was lapped traffic on his out-lap that had cost him a chance to win.
When asked on Sunday night to elaborate on the problems he faced, Sainz questioned why Latifi decided to stay ahead when the Spaniard came out of the pits, rather than slotting in behind.
"You can understand the frustration and the feeling that I went through there, because I knew my race was all about that out lap," Sainz said.
"As soon as I exited the pits, I was wheel spinning, obviously on the wet patch. And [Latifi] just managed to sneak in ahead of me.
"Knowing that I was the leader of the race at that time, he could have perfectly just stayed behind me instead of overtaking me, while I have to stay to the right of the yellow line like some others struggled to.
"He overtook me basically going up, because I had to stay right on the wet patch of the yellow line."
Sainz explained that Latifi only heeded the blue flags in the tunnel, which meant the Ferrari lost his advantage of getting one extra lap on slicks compared to Perez.
The Mexican had been the first of the leaders to take on intermediates, Ferrari's delay in responding with Leclerc meaning the poleman rejoined behind the Red Bull.
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"I had to follow [Latifi] through Turn 3, Turn 4, Turn 5, Turn 6, Turn 7 and Turn 8 and at the exit of Turn 8 he got out of the way in the tunnel," Sainz said.
"But at that time, I had already lost the warm-up of the tyre and the time to make a difference on the slick.
"I believe this slick at that point was already as quick as the inter and for sure not slower than the inter.
"And just because of being stuck behind this slowest car on the grid at that time, it cost me the opportunity to stay ahead of Checo after the pitstop.
"So you can imagine my frustration, you can imagine my shouting on the radio to get him out of the way but for some reason it took longer than it should."
