Sainz struggled: 'I was struggling a bit too much with the bouncing'

Carlos Sainz was able to finish in the top five twice during the first two free practice sessions in Azerbaijan. At the same time, both times he was far behind the performance of Charles Leclerc, so there is work for him to do.

The Spaniard has been doing his best to compete with his teammate all season, but for now, the Monegasque is pulling the longest straw. On Friday, Sainz could be reasonably satisfied with a fourth and fifth final time, although Leclerc was the fastest in the final session.

"It’s been an interesting Friday, as always here in Baku," Sainz began in a press release. "There were quite a few challenges during FP1 and I was struggling a bit too much with the bottoming and the bouncing, which made the session quite uncomfortable."

Sainz saw improvement in second free practice

The second free practice session went better, according to Sainz. "Overall, it was a smooth second session despite not being able to close an entire flying lap on the Softs due to yellow flags. We look forward to making another step forward tomorrow and having a clean qualifying."