Sainz ready to go ‘back to reality’ after FP2
Carlos Sainz was thrilled with P4 for McLaren in FP2 at the Canadian GP, but he expects Saturday will be “back to reality”.
The Woking outfit have brought updates to the seventh round of the 2019 season, including a new floor, and they look to have worked a treat after he ended the afternoon session 0.376s behind P1 man Charles Leclerc.
“Everything is working as it should,” Sainz told the media in Canada.
“We’ve also tried some experimental stuff on the car today. A lot of teams are changing front wings, changing everything around just to try to find the optimum balance and there’s a lot to analyse today to see what was working well and what was not.
“I’m happy with the team experimenting, trying stuff, it means we’re keen to move forward and that’s what I want to see.”
The Spaniard’s finishing position was boosted by Lewis Hamilton’s crash and Red Bull’s inability to piece together a clean run, so he expects to be behind the top three again from Saturday.
“We probably had one of the best Fridays of the season. Still I don’t believe that we are fourth fastest, I definitely believe that we are behind the top three teams,” said Sainz.
“Probably tomorrow will be a bit back to reality.”
Friday at the #CanadianGP comes to an end as the chequered flag is waved.@Carlossainz55 finishes the session in P4, with @LandoNorris P11. 🏁🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/Ma7KUYNwte
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) June 7, 2019
Team-mate Lando Norris was six tenths adrift of his team-mate in P11, and he admits that was all down to him on what is his first experience of the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve.
“There’s potential in the car, the car’s quick enough to do what Carlos did,” said Norris.
“I’m just not driving well, that’s basically it, and I need to do a better job – especially when it gets to qualifying.
“I got to grips with the track reasonably quickly but I pretty much haven’t moved on since my first run in FP1. A bit frustrating because there’s a lot more speed in the car than what I’m bringing out of it.”
Asked what he felt he needed to improve for Saturday, Norris replied: “Everything”.
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