Carlos Sainz started Q1 of the F1 Mexican GP qualifying session with a first lap 0.656 behind the best, Max Verstappen. He finished Q1 7 tenths behind the Dutchman. In Q2, the Spaniard is still far behind. But Suddenly, in Q3, he looked at his steering wheel and was surprised by the time he achieved on his first ‘bullet’. Verstappen managed to progress less than the Ferraris at the time and found himself overtaken by the red cars. This is how Leclerc achieved the pole. against Carlos Sainz who is only 67 thousandths away from first place, ahead of Verstappen, who is 3rd.
The Ferrari is still fast in a corner under certain circumstances, and Carlos Sainz highlighted how difficult it is to understand why this enormous potential appears in some moments, but disappears in others. Also, the huge difference between the performance of the car in a turn and the greater difficulty in managing the tire in the long run.
“It was a complicated weekend. Getting a good lap was very difficult for me on the soft tyre. Until the first run in Q3 he didn’t do a good lap all weekend. Although I had whiplash at turns 8 and 9 where I almost lost the car, it was a good lap. But when I saw the time on the wheel I thought: ‘where did it come from?'”, declared Carlos Sainz at the press conference for F1 Mexican GP.
“It shows that there is something that we need to understand, to analyze, because our car with soft tires, high grip in the Q3 and little fuel seems to have come back to life. But when we have more tires as tired as in Q2 it is more complicated. Sometimes it surprises us positively and other times, not so much. We have to improve it,” he added in the press room after the classification.
“The truth is that it was a good lap, greatly improving everything we did throughout the weekend. But the truth is that my second lap of Q3 was better, but we don’t know why, sometimes we fast and sometimes slow. It’s a bit of a strange situation this weekend with the tires and the pit exit lap. “We don’t quite understand,” he said later on ‘DAZN F1’.
“Most of all, the track has improved for us. For Max Verstappen it improved by two tenths and for us it improved by 8 tenths or a second, which explains to you that our car has something that we don’t fully understand, that suddenly we were able to put it in a very well functioning window and sometimes it surprises us very positively, and other times it surprises us negatively. So we have to continue improving, understanding it, because sometimes things happen like today, which are difficult to understand,” added the Madrid native.
PODIUM OPTIONS
“Podium? I don’t know, it’s impossible to say in Mexico. If we do the laps like today, we can aim for the podium or victory, but doing it for 71 laps with our car is complicated, like managing the tires in 71 laps, Red Bull makes the difference there. But with Charles, we will try to do everything possible to keep him and try to fight for that victory.”
THE RACE WHEELS
“Last year I think it was a single stop on a C4 and a C3. And tomorrow there will be both available. It doesn’t change the perspective much. Although I feel that the tires are more difficult to handle this year. In Free Practice 2 and 3 have both front and rear practice, so the race will be more complicated than last year. “It depends on the temperature management of the tires and also the engine and how we can be more consistent and will not err.”
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
