Carlos Sainz achieved a career-high achievement by overtaking Max Verstappen to secure pole position for the British GP, but admitted after qualifying that he was not expecting the result
After 149 races contested, Carlos Sainz finally secured his first pole position in Formula 1 this Saturday (2), at Silverstone. The Spanish driver suddenly appeared at the end of practice, when a quiet victory was expected from the dominant Max Verstappen, and took advantage of his rivals' mistakes to achieve a historic result in his career. After the result, he made a point of thanking the fans and highlighting the high degree of difficulty with the wet track in England.
"First of all, I would like to thank the fans who stayed here even with the rain, the Spaniards would have more problems with the rain, but they are more used to it, so thank you for being here," Sainz began. "It was a good lap, I was suffering a lot with the puddles and the intermediate [tires], there were many on the racing line," he stated.
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"So it was very easy to whip out and lose the lap, plus it was difficult to find the right temperature point with these intermediates," he continued. "In the end I got a lap that I didn't think was special, but that's the way it is. Pole-position, it was a bit surprising," he stressed.
Asked whether he can turn his first pole into his first win this Sunday, Sainz preferred to rely on the data obtained by Ferrari throughout free practice and believes that the pace shown by the F1-75 at Silverstone will be enough to hold off Verstappen and his teammate Charles Leclerc, who start right behind the Spaniard and promise to go for the win.
"Yes, I think so. The pace was there all weekend, except for TL3 - where we had some problems, but we think we were able to fix it in time for qualifying," Sainz opined. "If I base it on my TL2 time, I think we are in a good position to hold off Max Verstappen]. Charles [Leclerc] will definitely put the pressure on, and I will give my best," he closed.
GRANDE PRÊMIO follows LIVE and IN REAL TIME all the activities of the British GP weekend. On Sunday, the start is scheduled for 11am (GMT-3).