May 13, 2017

Carlos Sainz to start P12 at the Spanish GP

He keeps his motivation for the race after making the most out of his STR12 in Qualifying

Barcelona, May 13th 2017.- Carlos Sainz has fought for the best possible result at the Spanish Grand Prix, and that materialized in a twelfth place for the Starting Grid of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. The driver of Scuderia Toro Rosso made the most out of his STR12 and finished eight places ahead of his teammate, but that was not enough to clinch a Q3 spot, which was 120 milliseconds away.

When Carlos got out of the car, he felt satisfied with his work. "It wasn’t easy to achieve more than what we had today. Everything was very tight. When something doesn’t go as it should, you can feel it. We’ve seen all weekend long that Q3 would be very tight. We could reach it if a Williams or a Renault made a mistake. We saw that Force India and Haas picked-up half a second, but we missed it by just a tiny bit", he said.

Carlos confirmed that the upgrades his team has brought to Barcelona work correctly, although some rivals have an edge on power. "I knew that without this step-forward, we would have been even further back than yesterday. The car is better than yesterday, but maybe we are missing an engine-map like our rivals’.

Personally, I am very happy. You always have to see where your teammate is and I think it’s obvious we couldn’t achieve more than this".

Now, Carlos is focused on tomorrow’s race. Although he won’t be starting from his ideal position, he believes it is possible to fightback. "I hope that the freedom to choose the starting compound gives us an edge for the start. I will start at my maximum, as always, willing to comeback and score some points. I don’t like being P12 at home".

The start and the race pace will be some of Carlos’ weapons for tomorrow. "I think the race will be decided in the start and the pit-stops. Overtaking will be difficult, but we will go for it. In Qualifying we spent a lot of time flat-out, when Mercedes and Ferrari get the most out of their engines we miss those tenths we’d wish to have", he concluded.

The Spanish Grand Prix will be held tomorrow at 14:00 Spanish time. We will follow it closely via www.carlosainz.es and our Twitter account@carlosainzinfo.