Carlos Sainz credits his McLaren days for the Monza pole 

Carlos Sainz has been the most impressive driver so far this race week at Monza.

Carlos Sainz credits his McLaren days for the Monza pole 

Carlos Sainz (Via IMAGO)

Carlos Sainz narrowly outpaced Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to secure the pole position at Monza on Saturday. It was a solid achievement for the team as it came at Ferrari’s home race with a margin of just 0.013 seconds. His teammate, Charles Leclerc, followed closely, trailing by only 0.054 seconds in third place.

Carlos Sainz explained afterward that despite leading FP2 and FP3 and securing second place behind Verstappen in FP1 during the weekend, he had refrained from taking the essential risks needed to gain an advantage through crucial corners at the park-based Monza circuit with his SF-23 until his final qualifying attempts. This cautious approach changed when he pushed his car to the limit during the qualifying session.

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When asked about how taking risks had made the difference in beating Verstappen, Sainz explained that his approach was “typical here in Monza.”  Sainz elaborated further that, before his final qualifying session, he had revisited memories of previous flying laps at the Monza circuit, particularly those from his time with McLaren during the 2019-2020 seasons.

“I’ve had a few good laps here in Q3, and I remember my McLaren days, and even last year here, I had a really good run around Ascari and Parabolica – when you go and remove that fear a bit and go to take the ultimate risk,” Sainz said, as reported by Autosports.com.

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Carlos Sainz thrills Ferrari Fans and enjoys ‘Good Fun’ on his way to Fourth F1 Pole

Ferrari ; Image credit: F1i.com

Carlos Sainz was greeted with immense enthusiasm by Ferrari fans at their home track as he claimed his fourth F1 pole position by outperforming Verstappen. He also enjoyed the qualifying session in the post-session press conference, referring to it as “good fun.”

Sainz highlighted that from the first Q3 run, all three of them, referring to himself, Max Verstappen, and  Charles Leclerc, were closely matched with lap times around 1m20.5s. He acknowledged that, indicating the intensity and closeness of the competition for pole position. He said, “I enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed the battle all the way from Q3 run one, when we did 1m20.5s all three of us [Verstappen actually registered a 1m20.631s on his first Q3 effort].“

Acknowledging the tight competition, he knew that securing pole position would be highly competitive and that it would come down to the smallest details and taking calculated risks during the second run in Q3. Despite the pressure, he found the experience to be enjoyable and exciting.

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