SILVERSTONE – Carlos Sainz was surprised when he was told he had won pole position at the British Grand Prix, an achievement the Ferrari driver feels is far from achieved.
“Holy —-,” Sainz said on the radio. “” I didn’t expect it to be there! “
It was a hugely important position at the 151st attempt of his Formula 1 career, but that result looks unlikely to qualify. Sainz was the fastest in the second practice session on Friday but his car looked completely different on Saturday, as he struggled with bouncing at high speeds.
A downpour created an unpredictable elimination session, with times continuously improving until the very end.
“Honestly, I don’t know where I’m going to qualify because conditions are so variable that I don’t even know what lap time to beat in Q3,” Sainz said afterward. “I didn’t know what I had to do in that lap to go pole.
“I believe that wasn’t enough. But then it turned out to be enough and I’m happy to hear that.”
The Silverstone Pole could be a pivotal moment in Sainz’s season. His form so far can be described as erratic at best, with some insiders questioning Ferrari’s decision to extend his two-year contract with the Spaniard in April. when he underperformed in a title race.
His struggles are puzzling in the context of last season, when he outperformed teammate Charles Leclerc for the year. Things have gone in a different direction this year. Leclerc has won two races and six pole positions – Saturday’s pole position was Sainz’s first.
The next achievement to drop off the list is a Formula One win and there have been encouraging steps in that direction recently. Sainz finished the Monaco Grand Prix in second place, convincing a slow lap behind Nicholas Latifi that made him win, and then finished the Canadian Grand Prix just 0.9 seconds behind Max Verstappen chasing him. home in the final part of the race. He missed his first F1 win under similar circumstances after Pierre Gasly at the 2020 Italian Grand Prix.
To win Sunday, he will have to compete with Verstappen alongside him at the top, with Leclerc starting right behind him. If it stays as dry as the forecast suggests, Sainz is confident he has the car to turn pole into his first career win.
“I think we’ve been fast in every race this year so there’s no reason to believe we shouldn’t be fast enough,” he said on Saturday. “It’s true that Red Bull is always as fast as us, sometimes faster, sometimes a tenth slower.
“But in the end, the races where it’s so tight, it’s won by the details. What we need to focus on is getting the details right with the strategy, the tires, the management. If they are If we do these things right, if we have a track position, we should try and stay ahead.
“I think working well together we can beat two Red Bulls.”
