Carlos Sainz thought he had completed a lap well enough for pole position at the Las Vegas Grand Prix but still believes he will face a tough challenge to finish on the podium on Saturday night.
The Williams driver took provisional pole position with his final attempt at the end of Q3, but was just pipped by Max Verstappen before Lando Norris was 0.3 seconds ahead of the pair in wet conditions. Sainz says he dared to dream of securing pole before noticing how many cars still had to complete their laps, but he had been confident of a good starting position during qualifying.
“It was a very good lap,” said Sainz. “I thought it was a pole-worthy lap. When I finished the lap I saw myself in P1 and then I realized I was the first car to pass the flag, and maybe that wouldn’t last long with these two guys behind, but it felt like a really good qualifying.
“I think we were more competitive in extremely wet weather [tire] in Q1 and Q2. I wish he had stayed ex-nat, because that was the bond that gave me the best feeling and the best confidence. Every time we hit the board we were P1.
“But during the inters I expected to go slower because our FP3 performance wasn’t great, and in the end it turned out to be fine. But in the end that couldn’t be the case.” [pole].
“I had a good feeling about it [all weekend]. It’s just very disrupted and we were never able to show ourselves or show our pace at the top of the times. Obviously in dry terrain I don’t think we would have been more than P6, P5, P7, P8 in that range.
“The rain allowed us to shine a bit more and lead the stages of Q1, Q2 and Q3. I don’t think that would have been possible on the dry road, and I don’t expect that if the race is dry we can hold on to P3. But I think on the wet road we were certainly fast.”
With Norris and Verstappen in the front row and the Dutchman needing to make progress in the title fight, Sainz does not expect either of the top two to be particularly cautious.
“I think it will be more to do with the pace than the risk anyone can afford. I’m also starting at the front and it’s a pretty good result if we can bring that home. So I think we’re all more or less in similar positions.”
“For me it’s more about trying to hold on to P3 if I can, given that there will be very fast cars behind with the Mercedes, the other McLaren, Ferraris that were strong in the dry. So I’m going to do my best.”
“You saw me in Baku or in Austin. If I’m fighting for the podium there, I’ll just try not to make any mistakes and see if I can make myself as wide as possible and see if we can bring home a stronger than expected result. And I’ll do my best to make it happen.”
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