Carlos Sainz Jr. felt positive after his first appearance of the season in Q3 during Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix, although the Spaniard was slightly disappointed to miss out on sixth place on the grid.
The McLaren F1 Team racer will start seventh on the grid on Sunday, missing out on sixth to Haas F1 Team racer Kevin Magnussen by 0.056 seconds, while fifth placed Max Verstappen was only 0.005 seconds further ahead for Red Bull Racing.
Nevertheless, Sainz was happy with how his Qualifying session went about, and for the first time in 2019 both McLaren drivers made it into the top ten shootout – Lando Norris joined Sainz in Q3 – which he feels the team should be proud about.
“That was a good quali. I’m happy with how the session went and it’s a pity we missed out on P6 at the end,” admitted Sainz. “Nonetheless, I think we extracted everything from the car and P7 is a good starting position for the race.
“I really want to congratulate the whole team, here and back at the factory. Getting both cars in to Q3 shows their hard work over the winter is paying off. Everyone should be proud.”
After an early retirement in the first race with McLaren, Sainz is eager to get points on the board, and from seventh on the grid he feels he is in a good position to do so on Sunday.
“The job is not finished though, I want my first points of the season, so now it’s time to focus on the race,” said the Spaniard. “I think from P7 we have a good chance, so let’s go for it.”
