F1 News
Sainz saw Red Bull and McLaren step up: 'And then we knew'
- Ludo van Denderen
It looked like it could be a great day for Ferrari. In FP3, Carlos Sainz was fastest, and in Q1, the Italians closed in second place - thanks to Charles Leclerc - and it looked like the red cars would be competing for pole in the remainder of the session. However, once the prizes were distributed during qualifying for the Spanish Grand Prix, Leclerc and Sainz were out of the running.
In fifth (Leclerc) and sixth (Sainz), the Ferraris will start Sunday. Sainz was disappointed by this, but at the same time realistic: "Around Q2, we kind of realised that Red Bull, they turned it up, and McLaren also had an edge over us. I was disappointed, because honestly, after pre-practice, I thought we had a chance to fight for pole position this weekend. But, very quickly in Q2, we realised we were just a step too far."
"So yeah, we could sit here and argue three-hundredths more and we would be P3. But the reality is that I'm looking more at the gap to Lando than the gap to the Mercedes because three-tenths and a half is a lot of lap time around Barcelona," the Spaniard said.
Disappointment for Sainz
So Sainz concluded, "I don't know what happened to Checo [Perez] and Oscar [Piastri], but honestly, the Red Bull and the McLaren seemed a bit out of reach. The Mercedes was within a tenth of us, and the two Mercedes drivers were ahead of the two Ferrari drivers. So it's extremely tight, extremely good fun out there. But at the same time I agree. I expected a fight for pole or at least to be within a tenth, tenth and a half of the Red Bull or the McLaren, and we were three and a half which is quite a big gap."
This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy