Carlos Sainz claimed his first Formula 1 pole at Silverstone by 0.072s over world leader Verstappen , who claimed he was hampered by yellow flags on his final lap.
The yellow flags were caused by the third-fastest driver, Charles Leclerc, who spun out of Chapel corner on his final thrown lap as he passed through a patch of standing water.
Leclerc said he would be “very happy” if Sainz turns pole into his first Formula 1 victory, although the Monegasque sees the priority as the team taking a one-two.
For this reason, he hinted that the Ferrari pit wall could intervene with what he defined as “strategic movements”.
Leclerc, who admitted he “didn’t deserve to be on pole” for his mistake, said: “Of course I will be very happy if Carlos [Sainz] wins the race.”
“But I’m not going to hide that I also want to win. I think the most important thing is that we finish first and second, no matter what.”
“If we can make strategic moves between the cars, I’m sure we will. I feel confident with the car, so let’s wait and see.”
Carlos Sainz comes into the race looking to regain the balance of the car that he enjoyed in Friday’s second practice session, before in Saturday’s FP3 his Ferrari seemed more unstable in the high-speed corners.
The Spaniard admitted his surprise on taking pole, partly because of a delta that made him doubt his pace in Q3, and because he ran out of battery at Stowe corner.
Sainz acknowledged that the two Scuderia drivers would work together to overtake Max Verstappen and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Pérez, who will start fourth.
He said, “I agree. I think we’ll work as a team, like we’ve done all season.”
“I’m pretty sure that between myself and Charles [Leclerc] we can put up a fight with Max [Verstappen] and obviously not forgetting Sergio [Perez] who will also attack.”
“They were very quick in FP3, so I think if we can work [together], we can make it 1-2.”
Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said that despite the “great result” the race would be a “different picture” to qualifying and that he had “no idea” about the best tires for Sunday or best pitstop strategy.
However, speaking to Sky Sports , he said the championship is still up for grabs, although “reliability is a concern” after Leclerc’s retirements in Spain and Baku. Furthermore, Red Bull comes into this Sunday’s race having won the last six rounds.
Thus spoke the Italian: “They have won seven races this season, and we only two. But there are some races where we were in the lead and we had a reliability problem, so I think the accounts could easily be 5-4 or 4 -5”.
“The battle is very tight…there are still many races to go.”
“Reliability is a concern for us, but it can also be for them. You have to do and finish every race, so we keep pushing and we’ll see.”
