2 weeks Ago By Michelle
Carlos Sainz may be at a disadvantage to Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in the long run to Turn 1 in Mexico, but he’s warned the title rivals that he has “less to lose”. Sainz dominated Q3 at the Mexican Grand Prix where the Ferrari driver put his SF-24 on provisional pole before upping his pace to secure his first qualifying P1 for the season. He clocked a 1:15.
946, beating Verstappen by 0.225s while Norris lines up third behind his title rival. But although Sainz has pole position, the long run down to Turn 1 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez means it’s not easy for the pole-sitter to hold onto the lead as he gifts the slipstream to those behind him.
However, on Sunday he does have one thing going in his favour as Verstappen and Norris have more to lose if there’s contact. “I just need to make sure I do a good 0-100, which is the most important thing when you start on pole, just make sure you do a good jump,” he told the media including PlanetF1.com .
“And from there obviously do the best I can to defend. “I have two guys behind fighting for quite important things and the run down into Turn 1 should be interesting. I have obviously less to lose in that sense and I’ll make sure that I try and keep P1.
Sainz is also adamant he won’t let Verstappen and Norris’ title fight affect his actions as he fully intends making it through Turn 1 in lead. “No,” he said. “Honestly, at the start, I will just do everything I can to stay in P1 because also around Mexico that’s really important for the cooling of the car, for the tyres and everything.
So I’ll do everything I can. “But I say my focus is on the 0 to 100 and on the launch. Then everything else happening from then onwards.
.. “It depends, also, on how good my rivals start and all the instinctive decisions that we all take in the start.
I’ll trust my instincts and obviously with the intention of getting out of that corner P1 for sure.” After that, he’s “relatively confident” Ferrari have the long-run pace to win the Grand Prix. “I know my race pace should be good,” he added.
“Probably the biggest difficult thing will be the run down into Turn 1 and starting on pole with a slipstream, no? “But I think you can still defend, you can still make it stick into Turn 1 starting on pole and that will be my target.” 👉 F1 starting grid: What is the grid order for the 2024 Mexican Grand Prix? 👉 Winners and losers from the 2024 Mexican Grand Prix qualifying As for Verstappen, the Dutchman says he’s not planning on doing anything different to how he usually attacks the opening corner of a Grand Prix. However, once that’s played out, he reckons Ferrari could have the pace advantage in Mexico.
“No, it just depends on your start and then what happens in front of you,” he said. “I mean, I think I’ve been in a lot of starting positions around here. And yeah, it’s a long run.
Anything can happen, but I don’t really think about it too much. “I don’t expect miracles. I think in Austin, yeah, Ferrari was really, really fast.
Of course, maybe that week McLaren was not as strong, but then in the race, I think they were still competitive. So from my side, yeah, I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out.
” That’s a sentiment echoed by Norris, although he hopes McLaren’s race pace will be a bit closer to that of the Ferraris. “I mean, the race pace is always a tough one to know,” he said. “The last few weekends, they’ve been extremely quick and quicker than us, so it’s.
.. I don’t have the confidence to say, yes, we can just beat them on pace.
Like today, not on their level. But tomorrow’s another day. “You know, if we can have a good start, hopefully it’s exciting down to turn one.
Yeah, Carlos is going to be fast. Like he said, he’s got nothing to lose. And they’ve been fastest for the last few weekends.
“So we’ll try our best. But I don’t think we have the pace comparing to them at the minute.” Verstappen and Norris are first and second in the Drivers’ Championship where the Red Bull is 57 points to the good.
Read next: Mexican GP predictions: Sainz to win and no Max Verstappen podium.
