Sainz says “rookie mistake” cost him a place in Q3

2015 Malaysian Grand Prix

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Carlos Sainz Jnr says he could have made it into Q3 had he not made a “rookie mistake”.

“Getting into Q3 was more than possible,” said Sainz afterwards, “and we could’ve ended up with a great result”.

“We were looking very good, very sharp, but unfortunately I made a rookie mistake at turn 14 and I locked up when it was starting to rain, losing all chances to get through to Q3.

“If this rain hadn’t arrived, we would’ve surely been up there. But these things can happen, we need to stay positive and learn from mistakes.”

Toro Rosso technical director James Key praised his driver: “Carlos was flying in the dry conditions, he was really good and looked promising for Q3”.

“Unfortunately that first lap on the [medium] tyres in Q2 was extremely unpredictable. We have to remember that our guys had never driven here in the wet before while all the people around them had, so they had to judge it as best as they could.

“Both drivers did a great job, but Carlos just missed it in Turn 14 and if not, he would’ve got through just fine together with Max [Verstappen]. It’s a real shame, because he had looked strong all day.

“Max did an outstanding job considering that we’ve never faced these conditions with him in the past and he nailed it. To be starting from the third row here is excellent.”

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    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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    10 comments on “Sainz says “rookie mistake” cost him a place in Q3”

    1. I’ve been beating the Verstappen drum recently, but I will be the first to admit Sainz has been very impressive, more than I expected. Probably would have finished ahead of Verstappen in the dry today, and Verstappen seems to struggle more with the setup than Sainz. That said, still believe Verstappen is an hors categorie talent as a rookie of the likes the sport hasn’t seen since 2008, a future world champion. Sainz will be in the sport for a long time though.

      1. Agreed, Sainz has looked the stronger driver so far. Will be an interesting battle this season!

    2. Ha, so last race it was Verstappen who “made a stupid mistake” and ended behind, this time its Sainz with a “rookie mistake”. Nice to see how competative these guys are between them, altough I thought they might tangle during that frentic outlap in Q2!

      1. @bascb If you mean that defensive move by either of them, that was with a Lotus behind and not a STR.

        1. Nope. I meant how Verstappen himself described his qualifying and why he went out in Q2 @porschef1 (compared with Sainz saying much the same about this weekends qualifying).

      2. Hello Jean Eric, nice to meet you.

          1. As in ‘Vergne’?

    3. His time in Q1 was pretty impressive, same as Vettel.

    4. Toro Rosso is a team with a very special culture, to allow both its drivers to feel comfortable enough to openly claim mistakes and allowing them to make them and then turning it around as a positive to learn from them. Other teams meanwhile have drivers trying to claim a foot hold over their teammates, to a point where they’re afraid of admitting faults and other snide politics happening in the background, generally to the detriment to themselves and their teams.

      Imagine an F1 grid without a successful feeder team, like Toro Rosso or Sauber… Vettel, Alonso, Webber, and even if it was for 1 race for Jordan, Schumacher, all got their break in F1 through teams like these.

      Perhaps F1 could look at the benefits of teams like these and think twice about how money is distributed, and how the rules are structured, and how the series as an entity evolves motor racing at a holistic level, before making kneejerk reactionary rule making decisions.

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