Carlos Sainz says he took inspiration from former F1 teammate Lando Norris on his technique to pole place on the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix.
The outgoing Ferrari driver stormed to his first pole of the season on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez after outpacing Crimson Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.225 seconds in qualifying.
On his closing lap of Q3, Sainz was seen taking an uncommon line by hugging the pit wall as he exited the ultimate nook – one thing he revealed is a tactic utilized by his former McLaren teammate Norris.
“It’s only a Lando factor that he usually likes to do,” Sainz defined. “I feel it’s from iRacing or one thing.
“He likes doing brief distance to the road and I stated ‘effectively, I lose nothing by possibly if it’s quicker, chopping a bit the gap, possibly it offers me a thousandth or two-thoustanth of a second, however I’m going to verify I don’t go away them out thee’.
“I bear in mind from our McLaren days he used to do it lots and I used to be a bit puzzled.
“Tyre preparation has been a scorching matter in Ferrari the previous few races as a result of we really feel like come the race we’re all the time very sturdy however we all the time lack one thing come qualifying.
“This yr’s automobile is superb on tyres however I feel typically meaning in qualifying you can not possibly extract the utmost out of the tyres within the first timed lap, within the mushy tyres.
“We put a little bit of deal with that within the three-week break and got here into Austin and Mexico with a few issues that appear to repay.”
Sainz described the sensation of claiming his first pole place of the yr as “very candy” after nailing a lap that “very tough” to place collectively.
“Very candy, as a result of it’s not regular to must such sturdy laps round Mexico,” he stated.
“There’s loads of sliding within the lap, very tough to place a lap collectively. My laps in Q3 have been virtually each excellent and really completely happy to be on pole and make sure the nice kind from Austin.
“Austin already, that final Q3 lap was coming good so I had excessive hopes coming to Mexico and we managed to stick with it.”
Sainz stated he’ll do “every part I can” to maintain maintain of the lead on the long term right down to Flip 1.
“The beginning I’ll simply do every part I can to remain in P1, as a result of additionally round Mexico that’s actually necessary for the cooling of the automobiles, for the tyres, every part,” he stated.
“I’ll do every part I can. However my focus is on the zero to 100, and on the launch, then every part from then onwards I rely additionally on how good my rivals begin and all of the instinctive selections that all of us take within the begin.
“I’ll belief my intuition and clearly with the intention getting out of that nook P1 for positive.”
