Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz admitted that it was his call to run his final lap of the qualifying session for the Azerbaijan GP without a tow, after he was not able to defend his pole position at the Baku City Circuit earlier today.
Carlos Sainz set the fastest lap in his first Q3 run, but will start the Baku race from fourth place, behind his Maranello team mate Charles Leclerc and the Red Bull cars of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen when they set their final times. The Spanish driver confirmed he should have found a different track position in order to take advantage of the slipstream of another car, but it was his call not to.
“It was my call. I felt like the whole quali I had been quite consistent in terms of track positioning and tyre preparation. So I knew I was giving up around a tenth and a half on the main straight because of this. But tyre preparation and clean air in front is also important and it was my goal to go ahead and try and get clean laps in. So we will analyse it. Maybe the other was a better call but the mistake was mine, not the track position.” – the Spanish driver explained.
Carlos Sainz lost even more time on his final fast lap due to a mistake:
“Already the first lap of Q3 I had a couple of very tight moments with the wall. On the second run, trying to clean everything up, I actually did a mistake and it cost me quite a bit. But I’m still in the fight and still making progress so I’m going to take the positives.” – he added.
Carlos Sainz admitted he has been taking longer to build up his speed and confidence due to several incidents and crashes which took place in the first part of the 2022 Formula One championship: “I’m taking a bit of margin on Fridays and FP3s to make sure I understand the car before pushing it to the limit. After a couple of moments in the last few races I’ve decided to take a bit this approach. Honestly, during practice, I always felt within reach, I just knew I needed to take a bit more risks in qualifying. And as soon as I started taking them I was in the fight with with Charles and the two Red Bulls. It’s just that last run when I had to find a bit more, only there wasn’t.” – he continued.
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The Ferrari driver believes he is still “lacking a bit of experience with this car to be properly on the limit or exactly where to find the last tenth in quali in Q3 run two. But the important thing is that I was there, that we are making progress and that for tomorrow I think we are in the fight and we have had a chance to recover.” – Carlos Sainz concluded.
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