When everything seemed favorable for Carlos Sainz to finally achieve the first pole position of his sports career, the #55 suffered more than ever with the track conditions and ended up having to settle for third place at the start.
After achieving his best starting position of the year at the last Miami Grand Prix, a 2nd position that he nevertheless lost to Max Verstappen in the first meters, Carlos Sainz arrived at his home GP with the firm intention of, at the very least, repeating said feat after a turbulent start to the season.
Free practice for the man from Madrid went from bad to worse: despite finding good feelings in Free Practice 1, in the following ones everything changed and ended up disconcerting a Sainz who at no time finished adapting 100% to his F1-75 as he would have liked in Barcelona.
knife between teeth
“It’s been a tough weekend so far. the conditions have not been the easiest with the wind and the heat», revealed #55 to the Formula 1 microphones as soon as he got off his car.
In his first attempt of Q3, his teammate Charles Leclerc spun in the chicane of the Circuit, which made him go out for all with a single lap in the chamber in which nothing could fail. For his part, Max Verstappen yelled “No power, no power!” again on the radio.
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However, and although Sainz had occupied the pole position briefly earlier, making the crowd roar, both Leclerc and the Red Bull man finished ahead of him. “Today we were able to a decent lap that tomorrow will allow us to fight from there. The keys are going to be the start and tire management. Let’s see if we can get out well, and from then on. It’s a decent position to start from,” Sainz added.
Although everything continues to go against them and the pace of the Ferraris in long run seemed significantly worse than that of the Red Bull on Friday, Sainz refuses to give up and confirms that he aspires to overtake the two drivers ahead of him at the start and subsequently maintain a privileged position that would mean his first victory in Formula 1.
“Tomorrow anything is possible. I will need that new tire for the first race stint»
“Tomorrow anything is possible, without a doubt we will do everything possible to overtake at the start and lead from then on. It wasn’t an ideal qualifying, because I couldn’t do a good lap on the used tyre. I’ll be missing that new tire for the first stint race, but anything can happen and we will do our best»