Sainz shines on a very complicated track and he wants to win: “I keep driving like an animal”

The pilots of F1 They have a big challenge in qualifying in Las Vegas. On an asphalt it seems “an ice skating rink”As Verstappen said, it’s very slippery because of the low temperature and the dirt, the biggest difficulty for everyone is to get the tires up to temperature in the preparation lap to attack and stay in the optimal window during the lap, something that is not easy because the wheels. cool down in the long straight.

The McLarens sank in the attemptThey didn’t get famous either Verstappen and the Red Bulls and Hamilton, the driver who took Sainz’s seat at Ferrari for 2025, failed miserably in the pole car on two occasions in Q3. In addition, Carlos’ teammate Charles Leclerc also failed and recognized that the tires are the differential element and Carlos was one of those who excelled to achieve a good second position on the starting grid of the 2024 F1 Las Vegas GP .

“I wouldn’t say it’s like gambling. Some drivers always manage to get the tire right. Carlos has been one of them, and Russell mostly does it too, just like Gasly,” said the Monegasque. He’s referring to the first three, the best of the ‘qualy’ this Saturday (Friday night in Las Vegas).

That makes the second position of Carlos Sainz, just 98 thousandths behind polesitter Russell, gets more value. But even more so when driving a car that performed worse in qualifying than on Sunday, especially as Ferrari struggled to get the tires to the right temperature. The challenge is even greater for those in red and sparkling Carlos.

With such a tight grid, it was crucial for Sainz to start on the front row to squeeze the theoretical best race pace and best tire degradation out of his car on Sunday. He faces a huge chance to achieve one last victory at Ferrari, which would be his third of the season after a final lap in which Sainz made sure he had to recover from a bad start without it possibly being on pole.

“In turns 1 and 3 I said: ‘what a disaster'”

“No one was happy with the car and the tires. I also said on my last lap when turning 1 and 3: ‘what a disaster in the first sector and how bad the tires’ and then you keep pushing like an animal and the time put together the lap,” argued the Spaniard.

“It has been a very good day, really. We have managed to improve the car a lot compared to yesterday. Today I was much more comfortable. It allowed me to attack the corners, attack the curbs, attack everything better, so it has been a very good day, really. It was a very good qualification and a good position for tomorrow, which is important”commented the Madrid native on ‘DAZN’.

The keys to the race: “It will be difficult against Mercedes”

Although in theory his Ferrari should have better tire management and race speed than Russell’s Mercedes, Carlos is not confident and keeps his feet on the ground before the victory in Las Vegas.

“I’m a little confident in the race pace because we usually do better in the race than in qualifying. We also saw a little bit in free practice. It is also true that Mercedes were so fast this weekend that they will be hard to beat. They led all the sessions, His race pace is also very good.. “It will be difficult to win tomorrow but we will do it,” He explained, leaving more clues for this Sunday’s event (Saturday night in Las Vegas).

“Tomorrow the wind is picking up, there will be a lot of headwinds on the long straight which will produce more slipstream and more overtaking. There are a lot of unknowns for tomorrow. It will be a different race. . We also know what has been- track reset, you saw it now in Free Practice 3 it looks like an ice track again, so, a lot of unknowns,” he concluded.