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Carlos Sainz seemed to be glad for being on his home soil, the Spanish Grand Prix, as he managed to make his SF-23 the second fastest at the end of the qualifying session. He will start the race in the front row, alongside Max Verstappen, who is on yet another pole for Red Bull.
When asked by Marc Gene about his performance during the qualifying session, Sainz noted that he felt "very good" while driving his Ferrari on Q2 with the new upgrades. There was also a lot of noise from the fans on seeing their hero in the front row. Sainz reacted to all this by saying:
"I was very good today. I felt like I was driving very well, you know. It's always one-tenth here, one-tenth there, but you know, I was pushing everything. I didn't leave anything on the table today. I was pushing flat out."
Carlos Sainz had new upgrades installed on his SF-23 which were quite apparent. The entire design of the sidepod has been changed, and although it looks pretty minimalistic now, it seems to be working as he earned his second-fastest lap time.
This has been his best qualifying performance in the 2023 season so far. The Scuderia Ferrari driver will be expecting to push in the race tomorrow as he will have Verstappen to battle with.
Carlos Sainz feels at least four teams were in the same performing 'group' during qualifying
The qualifying sessions during the 2023 season have been quite close. There has been very little time gap between the pole sitter and the one starting from behind the grid. On Saturday as well, Lando Norris pulled his car to P3, a surprisingly good performance. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was pushing hard enough.
Carlos Sainz felt that at least four teams during the qualifying session; Alpine, McLaren, Mercedes, and Aston Martin, had very similar performances when comparing the lap time. He hence admitted that getting to P2 was perhaps the best he could have done, and his lap time was "pretty good."
"It was very tight even with the McLaren, with Alpine, with Mercedes, and Aston. We were all in the same group, basically this weekend. So I think P2 is as far as I could make it today and it was a pretty good lap."
While Carlos Sainz will be starting second, his teammate, Charles Leclerc, will be starting second last from P19. Although one reason for this performance of the other Ferrari can be the car not having the upgrades, Leclerc did mention that it was hard for him to take left turns. There was perhaps a mechanical issue.
Leclerc might have to start the race from the pitlane. Meanwhile, Sainz will have a much better start.
