Carlos Sainz explains why he 'paid the price' in shock Q2 exit

Carlos Sainz says he “paid the price” for his lack of running on the soft tyres as he suffered a shock Q2 elimination in Dutch F1 Grand Prix qualifying.

The Ferrari driver and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton were the big scalps in the second part of qualifying, with both dumped out after setting times good enough for only 11th and 12th respectively.

Sainz blamed his early exit on a combination of traffic and not getting any meaningful running on the soft tyres.

“I was still keeping my hopes up given that I normally get up to speed very quickly and I could make it through Q3 today given the fact that I've been three weeks without touching the car, no dry running yesterday in a track like Zandvoort, we haven't touched the soft tyre,” Sainz said.

“Tricky balance, tricky wind, not our fastest track for us for sure, and yeah, all these things adding up, plus a bit of traffic in sector 2 with Nico [Hulkenberg], it cost me probably Q3. But yeah, maybe I was being optimistic by believing we could make it.”

A gearbox problem curtailed Sainz’s session in FP2 and meant he was unable to complete any laps on the soft tyre during the only properly dry practice running at Zandvoort, with FP1 and FP3 both hit by rain.

As a result, Sainz’s first experience of running Pirelli’s fastest tyre came during qualifying, and he struggled for pace throughout.

“In Q2 I just lacked the experience of yesterday, knowing what to do with the front wing, with the tyres, to set up the car for a new soft in Q2. And yeah, I paid the price,” he explained.

“Not easy after the break as I said, not to do any laps on FP1, FP2, FP3 and go straight into Qualy with a soft tyre around Zandvoort, pushing flat out.

“I felt like I did some strong laps given the circumstance, but in the end, just the end with a bit of traffic, it was always going to be tricky.”

Teammate Charles Leclerc qualified sixth, over nine tenths off the pace, and admitted Ferrari’s gap to the frontrunners was “too much”.

Sainz conceded Ferrari’s poor performance at Zandvoort is a concern, though he expects a better showing at upcoming races.

“The last few races we've been two to four tenths off the McLaren and the Red Bull, depending on the circuit, we expected to be four or five tenths,” he said.

“So to be nine [tenths] is a lot more than what we expected, and it just shows that we have a clear weakness in these long combined corners that we have in Zandvoort.

“I expect us to be more competitive in Monza and Singapore, but here it just shows how far we've got left if we want to out-qualify a McLaren one day.”