Carlos Sainz Jr. admitted he was not fully comfortable behind the wheel of the R.S.18 during free practice or Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, but the Spaniard was still able to make it through to the top ten shootout.
The Renault Sport Formula One Team racer will start from tenth on the grid, and will share row five with reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton once the Briton takes his grid penalty for his unscheduled gearbox change.
For Sainz, whilst struggling for pace on the short runs, he feels the longer run pace will be stronger, and he hopes this enables him to move up the order to score a good haul of points on Sunday, around a track that he has never previously finished inside the top ten.
“I’ve been chasing car balance the whole weekend and I wasn’t fully comfortable with the car during qualifying, finding it difficult to put a perfect lap together tonight,” said Sainz.
“However, I’ve been happier with the long runs and there are a lot more possibilities during the race, especially with the tyre degradation that we’ve seen at the moment.
“That opens up a lot more windows so we’ll be ready for it. I’m convinced we can move up the grid tomorrow and have a good one.”
