Carlos Sainz is delighted to have finally not narrowly missed out on pole position, but sees Red Bull as favourites in the race
Carlos Sainz has been close to pole position several times this season, but in Austin it finally worked out with the first dry pole for the Spaniard. Sainz beat his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc to second place by 0.065 seconds this time, having been on the wrong side of the difference himself time and time again recently.
It was only recently in Japan that he had struggled with being only third when only 0.057 seconds behind – a trend this season. For Sainz had never taken a pole in the dry. His first Formula One pole came in the rain at Silverstone, and his second came at Spa when he benefited from an engine penalty from Max Verstappen.
“I think already in the last five to seven races I was close to the limit in qualifying, but the pole position in the dry never came,” he said. “It was always extremely close, but I was always half a tenth of a second short. I really wanted to make it and it was nice to do that today. “
He says he didn’t let the close defeats faze him, but just focused and trusted that it would happen eventually. That, he says, was the key to the pole in the US.
“I also try different things in practice to set the car up a bit better for me. I try different things with the driving style, with the set-up, with everything. Some are wrong, some are right, but that keeps me sharp and I can make progress,” he says.
Finally a clean lap
In Austin, though, he says it was also crucial that he simply managed a clean lap this time. “There have been qualifying sessions where I was half a tenth off pole and I just made a big mistake in the last sector,” he said. “And the fact that the lap was OK in the wind conditions contributed. “
From his point of view, qualifying was not that easy. Although he already had a good feeling with his Ferrari in Q1, which he slowly built up to Q3, it was quite tricky especially with the wind, he said.
“In some corners you didn’t know what to expect. You need confidence that the car will stay on the ground and you have to take a lot of speed without knowing what the wind will do,” he said, calling it “an adventure. “
Red Bull favourite on Sunday?
That’s probably what awaits him on Sunday, because despite pole he doesn’t see himself as the favourite in the race: “Tomorrow we will try everything to stay in front and win the race. At the same time, we are realistic and know what Red Bull is capable of on Sundays,” he says.
The Bulls usually have better tyre management and also strong race execution. “It will be a good test for us and I would like to win. That’s my goal,” says Sainz. “But I’m also realistic that it will be difficult. “
At the same time, the race pace didn’t actually look that bad in practice, as he points out. But, “The whole field had quite a lot of tyre degradation and we know that sometimes we then have a few more problems than Red Bull or Mercedes.”
“We have to be careful about that,” Sainz said, “but the pace was good. So there is no reason not to be confident of going for the win tomorrow. But we know that tomorrow could be a difficult day with the temperatures. “
