After confirming the good feeling of Ferrari in free practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix , Carlos Sainz arrived in qualifying with the aim of fighting for everything, and finally it was.
Despite being a bit uncomfortable compared to his teammate before reaching the qualifying session, the man from Madrid was very strong from the first attempt of Q1, where with only one record he qualified second to +0.096 from Leclerc , surprised everyone with the pace of the new Ferrari engine and chassis.
In the second round, Q2, Sainz saved tires and did the first lap with used softs, so it was not until his second lap that he got a competitive time that allowed him to go into Q3 in second position, 0.030s behind. Verstappen .
In the first attempt of Q3, Sainz set the fastest time with a 1:30.687, however, he could no longer improve his time, while Verstappen and Leclerc did. Ultimately, the Spanish Ferrari driver finished 3rd, 0.129s off his teammate’s pole position.
Speaking about his feelings after qualifying, the man from Madrid was happy but regretted that lost tenth with Leclerc that ultimately took him away from the first pole of the 2022 season.
“I had that tenth that Charles got, but I’m pretty happy with the progress we’ve made all weekend. I’ve been far away, it’s been hard for me to adapt to this car, how to drive it, I’ve been more than half a second behind All weekend”.
“Being able to be fighting for pole has been good news. To have done that lap in Q3 and not have gotten that last tenth was a shame,” he added.
Despite being defeated by his teammate, Sainz recognized that Leclerc deserved the first position in the classification of the Bahrain Grand Prix, given what was seen throughout the event.
“He deserves it, Charles has been consistently ahead all weekend and he deserves that pole position. The team has done a great job as well.”
“I’ve never been that far, last year at most I was a couple of tenths behind at circuits where I didn’t feel comfortable, but this weekend it was a deficit of 7 or 8 tenths.”
“I still don’t fully understand the car, I think a lot when I’m driving and that distracts me. But hey, I was able to fight for that pole and I can’t complain too much.”
“I’m missing that last tenth that I couldn’t find when I needed it, but this is fine,” Carlos Sainz concluded.
In this way, the Spanish Ferrari driver will start tomorrow from third position in what will be the first race of the season and, judging by the equality of the top three in the standings, he could even fight for victory if he finds a rhythm. competitive and wins the battle against Verstappen and Leclerc .
