Sainz relieved to be ahead of Verstappen

Carlos Sainz managed to make it into Q3 and thus takes the scalp of his teammate Max Verstappen. After a Friday still disrupted by reliability issues, the Spaniard gets a breath of fresh air: « I am very happy and satisfied tonight, especially after having such a difficult day yesterday! I really needed a clean Saturday. Today’s qualifying was tough because I had to get used to the twilight conditions and properly mark the braking points – which I couldn’t do in Free Practice 2 due to lack of running. It was important for me to have a good qualifying here and I must say that I am very satisfied with my 10th place. »

For once, Max Verstappen remained in the shadow of Carlos Sainz. But the Dutchman remains confident for the race: “It wasn’t the easiest of days, but we tried to make the most of it and we can be happy with our result. In today’s session, I think we maximized the potential of the car. (…) In the end, starting in 11th position isn’t so bad: I’m the first to be able to choose new tires, so it looks promising, as this circuit is quite tough on tires. I think we have a good race pace, so it should be interesting tomorrow.”

Toro Rosso will try tomorrow to close the 9-point gap that still separates it from Lotus. Its two young drivers will therefore need to deliver a very solid overall performance.