Sainz explains ‘surprise’ at first F1 pole for British GP

Carlos Sainz revealed why he was “surprised” to secure his first Formula 1 pole at the British Grand Prix on Saturday.

As the rain came and went throughout the session, the Spaniard delivered with his final lap in Q3 to beat Max Verstappen to P1 by less than a tenth of a second.

“I’m extremely happy today! Securing my first pole at Silverstone in the wet is something special that I will never forget,” Sainz said post-session.

“It was a good lap. I was struggling a lot with the standing water on the intermediate, there was a lot of water on the racing line and it was very easy to get snaps and lose the lap.

“At the end, I managed to put a lap together but didn’t think it was anything special and it was pole position and it came as a bit of a surprise.”

Explaining why, Sainz continued: “It was not easy at all, that is why I was probably surprised on the radio.

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“It is so difficult to keep this car on the track with these intermediate tyres with so much standing water that you have to give yourself some margin in places.

“You know that you can go a lot quicker and giving myself some margin paid off.

“Also on the straights, I was losing some speed because I was running out of battery. So, I said probably not enough. It was enough!”

Having now claimed his first pole at his 150th Grand Prix, Sainz has the best position to try and claim that elusive first F1 win that he narrowly missed out on in Montreal.

“I think so,” he said on if victory is possible. “The pace has been there all weekend except for FP1, where we had some issues that we think we corrected for qualifying.

“If I base myself on the FP2 pace then should be in the position to hang on it. Max and Charles will put a lot of pressure but I will try my best.”