Sainz confident P4 not representative for McLaren in Canada

Carlos Sainz says he does not believe his fourth-place finish in second practice for the Canadian Grand Prix on Friday is representative of McLaren's pace, expecting to get "back to reality" in FP3 and qualifying tomorrow.

Sainz ended the day just three-tenths of a second back from FP2 pace-setter Charles Leclerc and ahead of a number of usual front-runners as McLaren showed good pace at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

While Sainz was pleased with his efforts through Friday's running, he was sceptical of McLaren keeping up the result through the rest of the race weekend.

“I'm obviously pretty happy with the day so far. I think we’ve probably had one of the best Fridays of the season," Sainz said.

"But still I don’t believe for a bit that we are fourth fastest. I think we are definitely behind the top three teams.

"I guess I was getting comfortable with the car, but probably tomorrow, it will be back to reality."

Sainz was pleased with the new parts McLaren had brought to Canada to test in FP1, saying everything was "working as it should".

"We’ve tried some experimental stuff also on the car today. A lot of items, changing front wings, changing everything around just to try and find the optimum balance," Sainz said.

"There’s a lot to analyse today to see what was working well and what was not. I'm happy with the team experimenting stuff, trying stuff. It means we’re keen to move forward and that is what I want to see.

"The timesheets look good. Probably when we go a bit more into detail everything will look a bit more normal.

"But definitely, the first impression is quite decent."

Additional reporting by Julianne Cerasoli.