Carlos Sainz Jnr pronounced himself “very happy” to score the best qualifying position of his career so far with fifth at home but doubts he can repeat the feat in tomorrow’s race.
“P5 for us tomorrow would be very difficult,” Sainz told reporters after qualifying. “We are going to try our best.”
“Our long runs from Friday, they don’t look very promising, but it was a completely different car than what I was driving now in terms of feeling. We will work on it, we will work on it, we will try our best to finish in that top five but it’s probably not our most realistic position.”
Sainz said he struggled with a lack of front end grip throughout practice but when qualifying began he found he was able to get the front tyres working.
“I’ve never been comfortable with the car up until quali,” he said. “Suddenly Q1 run one, everything turned up, car was on the right window where I wanted it and from Q1 I was feeling very comfortable and I could build on it to score a very nice qualifying position.”
Sainz admitted he “didn’t realise I was at home until the lap back to the pits after Q3”.
“I realised, yeah, I had done a P5 and I was at home. And I could see all the crowd, everyone was cheering, it was a great feeling.”
hahostolze
9th May 2015, 14:39
He shouldn’t expect it, he has Verstappen behind him.
Miguel Sampaio (@gordess)
9th May 2015, 16:04
Don’t really agree with that. I believe Sainz has proven to be more than enough of a driver to beat Verstappen!
hahostolze
9th May 2015, 17:16
Has he? What race?
Don’t get me wrong, Sainz is impressing me immensely, especially in single laps, his raw pace is incredible, but when it comes to racing he has been second best.
dam00r (@dam00r)
9th May 2015, 18:57
I agree with you @gordess . I think Sainz is actually a better driver than Verstappen (overrated).
Sainz is the new Senna.
MattyPF1 (@mattypf1)
10th May 2015, 7:33
@dam00r and I agree with you mate. Ever since the 2013 Silverstone young driver test for Toro Rosso and Red Bull, I instantly thougt that this guy is special. Toro Rosso shouldn’t have even considered signed Max before Carlos. If it weren’t for Vettel’s departure, Carlos wouldn’t be in F1 today so… THANKS SEB!!!!
To the Max !
10th May 2015, 7:48
If it wasn’t for his engine, Max would have ended his first 3 races before Carlos.
Max takes it relatively slow in practices because Jos says it’s better for him to do a lot of laps right now, something which can be compromised by wanting to go too fast too soon and damaging his car.
Carlos is an excellent qualifier, but Max is much closer into hitting his qualifying laps more often as Carlos is into being steady with fast lap times in the race itself and being steady from weekend to weekend in the races.
hahostolze
10th May 2015, 13:10
LOL the race showed you
hyoko
10th May 2015, 8:51
Please do not demean Sainz like that. He has done nothing to deserve such an insulting remark.
evered7 (@evered7)
9th May 2015, 14:55
The new Spanish King in town. All hail Sainz!!!
Daniel (@dstaplet13)
9th May 2015, 15:12
Brilliant job by Sainz
scuderia_fan85 (@scuderia_fan85)
9th May 2015, 15:43
What he means by he didn’t realise he was at “home until the lap back to the pits after Q3″?????
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
9th May 2015, 17:58
@scuderia_fan85 it means that he had somehow forgotten that he was at Spain, and it was his home race.
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
9th May 2015, 15:51
He means he doesn’t expect to finish, nevermind 5th :)
Slava (@)
9th May 2015, 16:09
He must be proud of himself as he achieved the starting position so strongly loved by Alonso.
Ivan B (@njoydesign)
9th May 2015, 21:32
haha good one
kpcart
9th May 2015, 18:58
excellent result for Toro Rosso! imagine if Renault was on par with Mercedes, or even Ferrari, Toro Rosso could have been in the top 3! this is a great year for Toro Rosso – people are saying Red Bull should stop complaining about Renault and get on with the job and then compare Redbul to Toro Rosso – that is unfair on Redbull, and also it shows no respect to the amazing job Toro Rosso is doing. it is obvious the Renault engine is down on power and unreliable, so for Toro Rosso to be so high up, it shows that they have a great chassis this year. WELL DONE to them!
kpcart
9th May 2015, 19:01
usually, position 5/6 by rookies at a track like Barcelona would be front page worthy f1 news, but this is f1 2015.
bola
9th May 2015, 21:45
Reminds me 2008 Monza actually. This is I think the best since then.
@HoHum (@hohum)
9th May 2015, 23:30
Tyres. ok you can stop reading now if you like but Sainzs comments are another illustration of just how impossible it is for the engineers to set the car up right unless they get lucky with the conditions.