“I thought that was qualifying over for me”- Carlos Sainz on his car switch off in Q1

“I thought that was qualifying over for me”- Carlos Sainz says he expected the worst when his first qualifying for Ferrari was almost spoilt.

Carlos Sainz was in Ferrari for this year’s first qualifying, a dream move for any aspiring Formula 1 driver, you wouldn’t hope for any minor mishap, but Carlos Sainz had his own mini heart-attack moment.

In Q1, his car, out of nowhere, stalled in the middle of the track while he was vying for an appropriate time. Though, his earlier set time, in the end, saved him, which was good enough for Q2.

“I’m happy to be here [in Q3], mainly because I thought that after that situation there, the whole car switched off, and I thought that was qualifying over for me,” Sainz said.

“It was stressful, to say the least, in that first Q1, with the team and what happened there. I think we reacted well, and we pulled ourselves together after that shock.”

Not going Q3 to spoil our targets.

Sainz had a remarkable Q2, as he topped the chart, whilst his teammate Charles Leclerc finished P2, but an underwhelming Q3 relegated him to P8 in the end. But he isn’t disappointed and plans to exploit his car’s prowess on Sunday.

“We had a very good Q2. When I saw myself there at first, I was very happy,” Sainz told DAZN F1. “My Q3 lap didn’t go to plan. I just didn’t know exactly how to extract the last few times out of the car.

“But I’m not going to let that Q3 lap spoil what has been up until now a very good weekend for me. I’m very happy with how things have gone.”

Surely, Ferrari looked sharper than last year, as Leclerc managed to grab a second grid start on P4, from where he can easily aim for a podium.

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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