Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz admitted to driver error after his crash during qualifying for the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.
Sainz’s qualifying session at F1’s Singapore GP unravelled in spectacular style in Q3.
Never truly at one with his SF-24, Sainz lacked the speed of teammate Charles Leclerc, finishing behind the Monegasque in all three practice sessions.
Needing to push that little harder, the Spaniard ran wide at the final corner on his first flying lap of Q3, hitting the barrier with considerable force.
Speaking to media after the session, including Motorsport Week, a dejected Sainz admitted his error saying “I had a bit of a strange accident there.
“Had to let a lot of cars through opening my lap and my tyres were just a lot colder than I thought they would be.
“I misjudged the grip going on the bump on Turn 17 and it completely snapped on me.
“Driving mistake. I underestimated the grip I would get launching the lap.
“I was already under pressure with another car coming and I knew that launching the lap, I was already going to be slower because of the approach in the last corner.
“So it meant that I tried to do something there was not enough grip for.”
His Ferrari wrecked, the highest grid position Sainz can now hope for Sunday’s race is P10.
Should his gearbox be damaged, this will incur a ten-place grid penalty.
Sainz escaped relatively unscathed from a stewards investigation for crossing the pit entry while cars were still on the circuit. It was, all in all, a difficult day for the Spaniard.
Can Sainz recover his weekend?
Given the extensive damage to his SF-24, a pit lane start is a very realistic possibility.
“Honestly, the car looks quite damaged,” he said.
“I don’t know what we will do. I just hope that I can have a normal race tomorrow, get into a rhythm like I could in Baku, and then we can show good pace.
“I think this year, once I get into a rhythm in the race, we should be okay. It’s just over one lap with the black magic of the tyres to get everything working.
“I mean, you saw the mistake I did. It’s not common and not typical, and it shows that there must be something, honestly, with very, very fine line between them to grip and not to grip. And this weekend has been that way. So tomorrow, as soon as I get into a rhythm, we will be there.”
“Hopefully we can move forward. Extra DRS I’m still optimistic, but I need a good night’s sleep to feel optimistic also, because today was a big blow for me, and I didn’t enjoy it all.”
READ MORE: Carlos Sainz fined by FIA stewards after Singapore GP qualifying
Carlos Sainz questions Pirelli tyres
Sainz highlighted differences in pace between Friday and Saturday as he critiqued Pirelli’s tyres, questioning if this was “normal.”
Explaining his stance, he said “you can already see in FP3, Lando went a second quicker than FP2.
“That shows that there was something that they were sandbagging with. And even in Q3 they only went one 10th quicker than FP3 which is quite weird.
“So there’s something strange going on probably with the tyre preparation and how much you can extract this weekend with the tyres.
“Because it’s not normal that there’s only one-tenth between FP3 fastest lap and Q3 lap.”
When pressed further, Sainz called out the small operating window of the tyres, stating it can vary from track to track.
“The tyres are the same in theory, but I don’t know what’s going on at some tracks, that is extremely picky,” he said.
“Five, 10 degrees under the right level, and there’s zero grip. Five, 10 degrees above, there’s also zero grip. So you just need to find the right area.”
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