A small feat for Scuderia Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz in qualifying for the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix and not without a bit of luck. The Spaniard managed to snatch the pass for Q3 using medium tires (the only one together with Mercedes and Max Verstappen) against the soft of his rivals. A lot of courage especially for the decision of wanting to qualify at all costs with the compound which in theory are the best for the first part of the race, also looking at the performance of Charles Leclerc, who was not able to make it through to Q3 despite the choice of the Soft tyre for his final run.
However, Q3 was not as positive for Carlos Sainz, who finished only seventh behind Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris: it will therefore be a difficult start for him in Losail but, as mentioned, greater flexibility on a strategic level should play to his advantage in Sunday’s race race.
“I didn’t have a great feeling with the mediums tyres, the transition to Q3 was very close to the limit. It was a brave move sure, also risky, but in the end we succeeded and tomorrow we start with this compound” – Carlos Sainz said, at the end of the qualifying session which took place at the 5.38-kilometre Losail International Circuit – “It won’t be an advantage at the start, but it should give us a hand already between laps 5 and 10. We’ll see.” – he added.
“For my part it was a good qualifying session, but Q3 was not perfect, I did a good first lap, then I tried to put the car to the limit in the second attempt, but I went further and I could not lower the time. Anyway I did some good laps today. It hasn’t been easy this weekend, at least until now: Alpine, AlphaTauri and McLaren are all there. Other times we had some advantage, but today we managed to stay calm and do our job. Going to Q3 with the mediums and starting tomorrow seventh with this compound will not be easy, but it will be nice to do something different from the others.” – Scuderia Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz concluded.
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