Carlos Sainz on Singapore Q3 incident: "I underestimated the lack of grip"

Carlos Sainz on Singapore Q3 incident: “I underestimated the lack of grip”. Carlos Sainz explained what happened at the start of Singapore Q3.

Far from the front row
It was a tough night for Scuderia Ferrari at the Marina Bay circuit, where the Maranello team arrived with high expectations a week after the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. On the starting grid of the Singapore street circuit, the Italian side will occupy the entire fifth row. While Charles Leclerc will start from ninth position after having his time canceled for exceeding track limits in his fast lap at turn 2, Carlos Sainz will begin from tenth.

Carlos Sainz’s incident
For the Spanish driver, it can be said that the session barely started, at least regarding completed timed laps. Shortly after the start of the third and final session, Carlos Sainz lost control of the car at the last corner, crashing into the barriers and forcing Race Control to suspend qualifying eight minutes before the end.

The Spaniard’s explanation
An incident that compromised any chance of fighting for pole position, with the dynamics explained by the future Williams driver to Sky Sport F1: “A bit of everything happened,” said the driver who took pole in Singapore last year. “I had to let a couple of cars pass in the third sector, which cooled down my tires a bit. I was already on the dirty side when I was about to start the lap, and being in Q3, I wanted a good exit from the last corner. However, I was already very slow on entry, so compared to Q1 and Q2, I wanted to accelerate earlier to make up for it; otherwise, I would lose a tenth in the straight before even starting the lap. I underestimated the lack of grip. There’s always a bump in turn 17 that often catches you out. I misjudged it and made a mistake; I apologize to the team. It’s been a difficult weekend so far, but I’m feeling good physically.”

Not just the incident
In addition to what happened on track during Q3, Carlos Sainz also received a €25,000 fine (of which €12,000 is suspended for the rest of the 2024 Formula 1 season provided there are no similar incidents) for crossing the track on foot shortly after his crash, even though the session had already been interrupted with the red flag. He also received a warning for managing to respect the cone placed at turn 3 after going off track at turn 2.