Carlos Sainz Jr admitted his surprise after making it through to the top ten shootout for the Hungarian Grand Prix, with his free practice pace not indicating that the Scuderia Toro Rosso team were in with a chance of making it through.
The Spaniard had not expected to be in with a chance of advancing through, but a great lap towards the end of the second segment of qualifying saw him sneak in, although his one lap in the top ten shootout saw him end up tenth fastest, although that does become ninth when Nico Hülkenberg takes his grid penalty for a gearbox change.
Sainz is now hoping to be able to remain inside the top ten on Sunday, and is hoping for a return to the points for the first time since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
“We can be extremely happy with today’s result,” insisted Sainz. “It’s been a very tough weekend up until now, especially after this morning’s FP3, where we saw that we were lacking a bit of pace compared to our direct competitors.
“So qualifying was looking like a difficult session for us, but I got into a good rhythm, managed to put a very good lap together and got into Q3 – something I wasn’t expecting this morning!
“We can be proud about it; it wasn’t easy at all! Hopefully tomorrow we can do a good job, hold on to this position and fight for points!”
