Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz admitted he was happy to finish the qualifying session for the 2021 Russian Grand Prix in second place, thanks to a “good lap on the limit”, despite the fact that Carlos was one of the first drivers to take the chequered flag, which did not help set the ideal lap time.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was able to fully capitalize on the changing track conditions and take pole position at Sochi Autodrom after being one of the final drivers to cross the line at the end of a frantic qualifying session in which lap times improved dramatically in the final minutes on a drying circuit. Despite a strong performance and a P2 start for tomorrow, Carlos regrets not being able make the most of the conditions while they were at their best:
“It was very tricky, to be honest. It was right from the beginning a very tricky qualifying, but right after Q2 I could see that there was a chance that the slick was going to come into play. We did a very good strategy, pitting [with] two laps to the end, getting the slick up to temperature and then pulled out a pretty strong lap. Unfortunately, I was one of the first ones to cross the line, which didn’t allow me to exploit the whole track conditions, but it was still a good lap on the limit.” – the Spanish driver said, at the end of the qualifying session in Sochi.
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Carlos Sainz confirmed that he and Ferrari are ready to “put on a fight” from the second place on the grid for the Russian Grand Prix but at the same time Carlos is aware that it will be difficult to defend against faster cars such as Mercedes and Red Bull:
“This weekend we’re looking a bit stronger. Probably our weakest conditions have been the intermediates. We’re still have some issues there to solve. But in the dry, we’ve been competitive. Obviously, there’s the two Mercedes and the Red Bull of Perez that are going to be much quicker tomorrow and we expect them to go through, but we will put on a fight and try and have some fun.” – he added.
Starting on the front row of the grid for the Russian Grand Prix alongside former team mate Lando Norris, Carlos said he will look for any opportunity to pass his McLaren sparring partner at the start of Sunday’s event:
“It’s going to be fun. Hopefully I can get Lando at the start or, if not, just get a good tow, because starting P2 here, dirty side, is really penalising. I’m going to need to make sure I do my homework overnight to make sure that we don’t lose too much off the line on that dirty side and then see if I can get into a tow or why not pass him into turn two?” – Carlos Sainz concluded.
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