After leading the day on Friday, Carlos Sainz faced Saturday with the maximum possible motivation and that was noticeable in the qualifying session, where the Ferrari driver from Madrid got the first pole position of his Formula 1 career.
In both Q1 and Q2 , the Spanish driver repeated the result and finished fourth, far from the best time and on both occasions behind Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc, the two drivers whom everyone pointed to as clear favorites.
Finally, Sainz arrived at Q3 with a single goal: to get his first pole position. With the rain and the intermediate tyres, the man from Madrid gave the sensation of not being comfortable, but on his last lap he set a time that no one could beat, a 1:40.983 that gave him the first pole position of his sports career, ahead of Verstappen , Leclerc and Sergio Perez.
As soon as he got out of his Ferrari F1-75, the #55 was the first to show surprise at having been the fastest driver in the classification of the 2022 Formula 1 British Grand Prix.
“It was time for joy with this pole in complicated conditions, conditions that I have always liked and in which I have always done well. So, what better place than Silverstone in the rain to achieve the first pole”.
“It was a good lap, clean, but I was struggling a lot with the standing water, there was a lot of it, even on the racing line, and it was very easy to make a mistake and lose the lap.
“I lacked quite a bit of battery, on the back straight I ran out of battery and we lost two or three tenths on the straight I think, so I thought it wasn’t going to be enough, but the back straight must have been pretty good.”
“It’s also harder to get up to temperature with the intermediate in these conditions. In the end I was able to do a lap that I didn’t think was that special at the time and it was pole position, which was obviously a bit of a surprise,” said the Ferrari Spaniard. .
Thinking about the race, Sainz was positive and believes that if nothing unusual happens, he could get the first victory of his Formula 1 career at Silverstone, although he does expect a tough rivalry between Verstappen and his teammate Leclerc . , his two immediate pursuers.
“Tomorrow I think we’ll be dry again, but here there’s always the risk of one of these downpours that wet the entire track.”
“The pace has been there all weekend except for FP3 where we had some issues which we think we’ve fixed for qualifying, but based on my FP2 pace then we should be in a good position to try and keep it [the lead].”
“I am sure that Max and Charles will press hard, but of course I will do everything possible”, concluded a Carlos Sainz who has made history today and could repeat it tomorrow.
