Carlos Sainz believes he did sufficient laps to take pole place on the Las Vegas Grand Prix, however believes he’ll nonetheless face a stiff problem to complete on the rostrum on Saturday evening.
The Williams driver took provisional pole place along with his final try on the finish of Q3, however was overtaken by Max Verstappen, earlier than Lando Norris opened up a niche of 0.3 seconds to the 2 automobiles in moist situations. Sainz stated he dared to dream of taking pole earlier than he realized what number of automobiles had but to finish a lap, however was assured he might get a very good grid place by way of qualifying.
“It was an excellent lap,” Sainz stated. “I believed it was a lap that deserved the pole. Once I completed the lap, I might see I used to be in first place, after which I noticed I used to be the primary automobile to cross the flag. It most likely did not final lengthy as a result of these two guys have been going to be behind me, however I felt prefer it was a extremely good qualifying.”
“If something, I feel we have been extra aggressive with the Excessive Moist (tyres) in Q1 and Q2. I want we had stayed with the moist tires as a result of they gave us the perfect feeling and probably the most confidence. Each time we hit the board, we have been first.”
“However at Inter, we did not carry out nicely in FP3, so we anticipated it to be slower, however ultimately it turned out to be OK. However ultimately we could not get[pole position].”
“We had a very good feeling (all through the weekend). However it was very chaotic and we did not present ourselves at the perfect occasions or present our tempo. Clearly within the dry, I do not assume we might have gotten higher than sixth, fifth, seventh, eighth in that vary.”
“The moist allowed us to shine just a little bit extra and lead the levels in Q1, Q2 and Q3. I do not assume that will have been doable within the dry and I do not anticipate to have the ability to preserve third if the race was dry. However I feel we have been undoubtedly sooner within the moist.”
Sainz stated he didn’t anticipate both of the highest two to be significantly cautious, as Norris and Verstappen share the entrance row and the Dutchman wants to interrupt into the title race.
“I feel it is extra in regards to the tempo than the danger that everybody is keen to just accept. I am additionally beginning on the entrance and it will be a reasonably good end result if I might take it dwelling. So I feel we’re all in kind of related positions.”
“For me, it is extra essential to attempt to preserve that P3 if I can, contemplating we’ve got a really quick automobile behind us, together with Mercedes, which was robust within the dry, and the opposite McLarens and Ferraris. So I’ll do my greatest.”
“You noticed me in Baku and in Austin. Once I’m preventing for a podium, I simply strive to not make errors and see if I can go as vast as doable and see if I can carry dwelling a stronger end result than anticipated. And I’ll push to make that occur.”
