Endless qualifications
Qualifying for the second Qatar Grand Prix in the history of Formula 1 seems to never end. First, at the end of Q3, they were the times of the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were cancelled, who thus fell from second and fourth on the grid to tenth and sixth, with the Englishman dropped to the fifth row due to the lack of a valid time in the session. Then it was Carlos Sainz who ended up in the commissioners’ sights, who already hadn’t had a pleasant Friday. The Spaniard from Ferrari had in fact been eliminated in Q2, with the 12th fastest time.
Sainz at risk
Own your alleged infringement was reported in Q2. In a first statement released by the stewards it was learned that Sainz had been called up for “irregular driving”. The obstacle in question was the world champion Max Verstappen, who was also invited to appear at the federation’s offices to present his version of events. Over the radio, the Dutchman from Red Bull had been quite critical of the behavior of the Ferrari driver, his former teammate at the time of Toro Rosso.
In the end though the stewards were soft on the Ferrari Iberianwho got away with a simple ‘warning‘. The commissioners explained in the final document how Verstappen was engaged in an out lap, while Sainz was completing an cooling lap and defended his position – thus avoiding being overtaken by Verstappen – in an unpredictable way for those following.
“During the discussion – we then read in the press release – the driver of car #55 stated that he could not afford to be overtaken by another car, as he had to stay under the maximum travel time between lines SC 2 and 1. Although this was accepted by the Stewards and the driver of car #1, the measures taken by car #55 were deemed unnecessary, as the accident occurred during qualifying and the cars are not expected to race directly against each other as they prepare for the launch laps. The Stewards considered that a warning is appropriate on this occasiongiven the circumstances“.
Poor balance, little grip
“I had difficult qualifying from the start – Sainz commented to the microphones of the official Formula 1 channel after qualifying – I struggled a lot with the balance. The rear was very unstable. In free practice I was able to turn on the tires and have decent grip with this asphalt, but with the lower temperatures we no longer had grip“.
“I suffered a lot and I’m not at all surprised that I didn’t qualify for Q3. We hope to find a turning point in the Sprint for a better Saturday, but Sunday will certainly be complicated having to start so far back on a track that is difficult for overtaking. But now I’m focused on trying to do better tomorrow.”he concluded.
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