Carlos Sainz made an excellent recovery in qualifying after crashing in final practice on Saturday, to line up alongside team-mate Charles Leclerc on the third row, only 0.01 seconds slower than the Monegasque. The Spaniard lost his Ferrari over the crest after Turn Two, and spun into the wall at the entry to the heavily banked third corner, Hugenholtz.
”At the beginning I didn’t know what had happened,” Sainz said. “Then I had a bit of an analysis, a bit of a cool-down in my head, and after what I’ve seen in quali, it’s very clear now that centimetres off line there’s clearly less grip than online there’s a bit of sand.
“And I missed the apex by maybe 20cm in that lap, and you can see maybe that I pull up a bit of dust, and I think that is enough to create an accident at this circuit.”
Sainz was revelling in the Zandvoort track. “In terms of challenges, away from Monaco and Baku, I think this is biggest challenge of the season for the driver. I loved it. Even [in] the accident, I felt like I deserved to crash. To be 20cms off line, because this is how a circuit should be.”
Leclerc, for his part, was slightly disappointed not to have beaten Pierre Gasly’s Alpha Tauri to fourth. He said: “(I) maybe exaggerated the front wing on the last run and lost the rear end a bit but overall it was a good lap. Shame to miss P4, though. I had the possibility to be fourth today. We are starting on the clean line so hopefully we can take benefit from that.”
