Sainz aims to secure pole position: “I want to work harder than ever”

Carlos Sainz won the pole with F1 Singapore GPThis is the second consecutive year that this achievement was achieved. monza. He showed overwhelming dominance, outscoring his rivals in both of his two attempts at Q3 and consistently leading. In the first lap he gained two tenths of a second over Leclerc, three seconds over Norris and six seconds over Russell. And in his last attempt, he was conscious of his speed and reminded himself in the press conference and on DAZN F1 that all he had to do was focus on not making mistakes and that would be enough to shoot for pole. He revealed that he knew. It shows that he was confident in his speed in Singapore. This pole not only signifies his great form, but is far more significant than the one achieved in 2016. monza. There he knew that it was virtually impossible to win given his superiority. red bull.in Singaporequite the opposite: victory is possible.

He realizes that the Ferrari’s wheels have deteriorated more than the others and that race pace is bound to suffer somewhat. But it’s better to be the first to go. It is very difficult to overtake in Singapore and you need a large time difference to achieve this. Carlos will have to protect himself above all else to win. But it’s possible.

“It feels good. I got a good feeling from free practice 1 and gained even more confidence in free practice 2 and 3. I knew I couldn’t make any mistakes in Q3, so I put that into practice and completed a clean lap. It gave me pole position again, an incredible feeling. Now more than ever, unlike at Monza, I want to get the job done. “I want that win.”said Carlos.

“What if I believe I will win? I’m much more confident than at Monza because of the track configuration. I think it’s easy to maintain position on the track here and that gives me confidence. “In terms of pace, if you look at the long run data, Mercedes, Aston and Red Bull looked a little faster than us in terms of tire degradation,” he commented. Against all this, the Madrid man is preparing to defend himself with all his might. “So we have to race a little bit defensively, but we’re not going to ignore the fact that we can maintain the lead because it’s harder to overtake on this track than on other tracks. That race pace is like ”Our Achilles heel” he added.

his great condition

“I had a few sessions and some good laps on the soft tyres. That’s a good sign. It means I’m going in with confidence, getting the most out of the car and getting the most out of my potential. But the truth is, I was confident from the first lap of free practice 1 again this weekend, and I recorded a very good sector, a good lap, and I made no mistakes and took pole position. I can’t complain because I was able to get this.”

Strategy for the pole

“Even without a perfect lap, even without a great lap, I was running very fast. I could see myself in the top position. On the Q3 lap, I realized how fast I was going. I knew that if I ran a lap without any errors, I would get pole position.” And I’ve been focused on not making mistakes. There were some corners where I could have taken a little more risk. But it was a clean lap and usually in Singapore it always pays off and it was a good lap that got us pole position. ”

This is how he found out about the Verstappen disaster

“The engineers told us that two Red Bulls were out, which obviously wasn’t bad news. I was expecting more from them tomorrow rather than ‘qualifying’. There’s always a battle with Max, but Rand, George, and Charles were all close from the free. Yes, that was decent news. ”

last sector, key

“I think one of my strengths for the weekend will be to keep the tires alive until the final sector. In Singapore it’s easy to push too hard and get the tires hot and lose and end up losing, so I hope to maintain that advantage heading into Q3. I didn’t take too many risks in the turn and it was a clean lap, which was enough to get me pole position. “I’m very happy with her.”

Ferrari performance in Singapore

“It’s a pleasant surprise, because we always had some problems and always lacked rhythm on these loaded tracks. And in Singapore we were the fastest or one of the fastest. Progress has been made towards extending the downforce package and they’ve done a great job so I’m very happy with that. But historically Ferrari has also done well here and I’m very happy to drive at this track. I like it, so I’ve had good results here as well. A job well done, but it’s also a track that adapts to the car, unlike Zandvoort.”

Confidence in the future, the best moment

“I’m not going to lie, I’m very confident in the car and I’m driving it very well. I’m probably at my best level since coming to Ferrari and I’m maximizing my potential. . I like it. And along with my engineering work, I am getting more potential out of the car and that will give me more confidence in the future. But I will continue to work on improving my race pace. You already know what happened in Monza. It will be another good test to see how much progress we have made in that area.”