With Charles Leclerc forced to start from the back of the grid, the eyes of all Ferrari fans will be on Carlos Sainz tomorrow, especially in the start of the Canadian Grand Prix.
The Spaniard so far has not been able to replicate in 2022 the strong performances and consistency he showed in his first season with Ferrari: he made several mistakes and some bad luck also didn’t help him, if we just think the start in Imola or the reliability problems in Baku. Even yesterday, in Q3 in Montreal, not everything went smoothly for the Spanish driver.
A mistake at the last corner, with the track becoming more and more dry, made him slide from second to third on the grid, also behind his childhood idol and friend Fernando Alonso. In front of the microphones of Sky Sport F1, however, at the end of qualifying, Ferrari’s #55 was clear: no worries for Alonso who precedes him or for Hamilton, who will start alongside him. The focus will be on Max Verstappen’s first position.
“It’s not bad to have Alonso in front and Hamilton behind at the start, but I’m only looking in front. I look at Max – Carlos Sainz clarified – not at Fernando or Lewis. Tomorrow, if we have a good start, the goal is to pass Fernando as soon as possible. The strange and interesting thing is that he has been strong even in dry conditions, he has been strong all weekend and it will not be easy to pass him. From what I saw all weekend Max was very fast. Perez not so much. Max has that tenth advantage in the race pace compared to us, but if we start well maybe we will have a chance to fight to win, which is the goal. Conditions will be very different tomorrow ”. Analyzing the qualifying session, Carlos Sainz recognized his mistake. However, the Spaniard also explained that Red Bull’s main driver, with intermediate tires, was difficult to beat.
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“With the wet tires we were setting the the same lap times as Red Bull, or maybe we were even stronger than them. On the intermediate compound, on the other hand, Red Bull has more, but in the end the track was already dry. I did well in the first sector – added Carlos Sainz – but I struggled in the second and in the third sector to recover and I lost even more. In the end this cost me second position. This weekend I was strong in FP1, FP2 and also in the wet. Too bad for today’s lap, without the mistake I was second one tenth behind Verstappen. But it is so. Tomorrow I will try to attack, especially at the start. We have to pass Alonso and put pressure on Verstappen, then maybe pass him at the pit stop or force them to make a complicated strategy. I also start from the clean side and if I am behind Max, anything can happen ”, concluded the Ferrari driver.
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