Carlos Sainz said the final moments of his Saturday qualifying session for the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix were a “disaster” as he struggled to warm up his tyres en route to setting the eighth fastest time.
Qualifying played out amid rainy conditions on Saturday, a typical factor often at play around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit.
But with the conditions themselves remaining fluid, a patter of rain here, getting intermediate tyres in the right window proved crucial.
Sainz had no issue with that all session until he switched to his final set, whereby the aforementioned “disaster” kicked in.
“Yeah, everything felt pretty straightforward for me,” the Spaniard said on Saturday afternoon.
“I was quite happy with the car, Q1 and Q2 and even Q3. I felt like I was driving well in the wet and putting together some strong laps and quick all round.
“Just the last set of Q3 for some reason was a bit of a disaster for me. I didn’t find the grip that I had all session and I was really struggling with the tyres, with the warm up and I had absolutely zero grip.
“So yeah, something to look into, analyse, see what we could have done better but time to quickly switch the page because tomorrow is a new day and it’s race day.”
Sainz’s anguish regarding the final moments of the Q3 top-10 shootout was no doubt a bitter pill to swallow, given there was no such issue on the other side of the Ferrari garage.
Charles Leclerc fired his fresh inters into life with aplomb, setting the second fastest time in qualifying, seven-tenths quicker than Sainz and bagging pole position thanks to Max Verstappen’s 10-place grid penalty.
Still, despite the disappointment in qualifying, Sainz is confident he can progress from seventh on the grid.
“I think we have a chance to anyway be in a position to move forward through the field,” he said.
“At the same time, in front of me there’s cars with very similar pace or some of them even quicker than us so it will be difficult to move forward but we’ll give it our best chance with strategy and managing the race.”
Then there’s the small matter of Verstappen, who will be charging through from 11th, but Sainz thinks “it will be tricky” for the Dutchman to advance.
“It’s not as easy to overtake as it used to be,” Sainz explained.
“At the same time, when you have space everything is easier. But the McLarens were extremely strong yesterday so it will not be easy for them to hold on.”
