Carlos Sainz hopes McLaren don’t regret being exposed on the straights after focusing on Sector 1 with their setup in practice.
The Spaniard ended both Friday sessions in seventh place at Suzuka, leading the midfield, but it didn’t come without quite a scare in the morning as his car shut down moments after exiting the pits for the first time.
“Yeah, it started off with a little heart attack there. I was thinking I was going to miss the whole of FP1,” Sainz said.
“Luckily it was just a connection of a sensor and immediately we were back out and we could complete FP1 without any issues and FP2 without any issues again.”
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As for their performance, though the single-lap pace is strong, by focusing on their strength the British team is risking being vulnerable to attack into the two main overtaking areas.
“The car is responding well into Sector 1 here which is always nice,” Sainz explained.
“Then Sectors 2 and 3 are nothing special but we’re making all the time in Sector 1… unfortunately we’re very slow in Sector 3, in the chicane and on the straight.
“So it’s a compromise. Our car lately looks to respond well in higher downforce and it looks to be working well in higher downforce so we are playing around a bit with that.
“That’s why we are nothing special in Sector 3, but if that does mean we qualify in P7 then it’s the right decision.”