Carlos Sainz’s Canadian Saturday was definitely uphill, thanks to the accident in the wet which forced him to park his car early during FP3. With just over two and a half hours to go in qualifying, the mechanics had the arduous job of setting up the whole rear end in a short time and repairing the front as well.
However, the mechanics managed to put car number 55 in the conditions to be regularly at the start at the start of Q1, managing to pass the gap despite the eleventh position. Things went better in Q2, where he was able to overcome the cut on the contrary of his teammate, who was unable to set the time in the window in which it was possible to ride on the slick.
The outing of the red flag in Q3 then penalized the Spaniard, who hadn’t set a particularly significant time already in the first attempt: “I’m happy with how we tackled Q1 and Q2, we did some good laps even in difficult conditions and although I lacked a little confidence after the accident [in FP3]. In any case, I’m happy with my lap on the slicks in Q2, then in Q3 it was a bit of a lottery, we weren’t able to set a competitive time. We are in eighth position, but with these conditions it can happen”.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-23
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
According to Sainz, Ferrari had the potential to be in the top three: “It was a very tough day from a psychological point of view. After the crash in FP3 you don’t want to have another crash in qualifying even if you have to push in complicated conditions with the slicks in Q2, I did some good laps there. “I honestly think we had a bit of bad luck with the red flag and the rain, because I think we had the potential to be in the top three.”
The eighth box conquered on the track will not be the one from which he will then start on the starting grid, because Sainz was penalized by three positions for having hindered Gasly in qualifying. The Madrid native, who presented himself to the marshals together with Laurent Mekies, explained his point of view, but that wasn’t enough to avoid the penalty: “I was in the middle of four cars, we were passing each other. We all wanted to cross the finish line.”
“I think we all got in each other’s way today. I’ve been thwarted like seven times, but some cases are under investigation, some are not, sometimes it’s hard to understand. It was very difficult today, we were also close to the checkered flag, so we all risked crossing the line after zero on the clock. Today I was hindered seven times, so I don’t know how they will handle the situation,” added the Spaniard.
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