Carlos Sainz faced the second classification of the 2022 Formula 1 season with the intention of overtaking his teammate, Charles Leclerc, who led in all the free practice sessions held until the decisive moment.
The man from Madrid had not found the rhythm during a weekend marked by the terrorist attack on one of the Aramco oil facilities on Friday, which caused all the pilots to meet until dawn to deliberate on holding the test in Jeddah.
Finally, it was agreed to go ahead with the Saudi event, so the twenty single-seaters would go out on the track to duel and fight for the second pole position of the year on the urban track under the artificial lights of the floodlights.
The Spaniard missed that coveted front row of the grid to the detriment of Sergio Pérez, who took the first pole of his career, and Charles Leclerc, who again finished ahead of Sainz.
However, the Ferrari man was satisfied with his performance, as he will have the opportunity to redeem himself in Sunday’s race: “The lap to be third was quite good, with some used tires because, for some reason, this weekend They’re giving me a better feeling.”
“The new tires, for me, are very digital, very difficult to handle, and when I put the ones I had on the last try in Q3, I didn’t have rear grip, so it was difficult for me,” explained the Madrid native when got out of the car on the finish line of the night circuit.
“For a used tyre, it wasn’t too bad, but then again Checo [Perez] and Charles [Leclerc] narrowly beat me, so it’s still good, it’s going to be exciting,” said Sainz, who hopes to experience a second round of the 2022 season in which to get a good result for the Italian team.
“The four cars mixed between the Ferraris and the Red Bulls, we play with each other with the strategy and overtaking, so it should be an exciting race,” said Sainz before heading to his engineers to investigate the reason for going faster. with used tires instead of new ones, as has happened with Leclerc.
