Sainz calls Q3 return a small victory hours before Baku grid penalty
Carlos Sainz finally had a Friday worth smiling about in Baku, reaching Q3 for the first time all season. The smile did not survive the evening.
Speaking after the session, the Williams driver was clear that the pace had been there for a while, even if the results had not shown it. "Obviously this qualifying will shine a bit more now because it's Q3," he said, "but honestly I've been doing some strong qualifying this year with this car."
He added that grid position had often masked what the car could do: "Just sometimes you don't get to show it because of the position, but today I did some serious laps in Q1, Q2 and Q3."
Sainz credited a recent upgrade and the team's work behind it for finally converting that pace into a top-ten shootout appearance. "I managed to maximise the opportunity that this track gave us to put the car in Q3, and thanks to the upgrade and the hard work of everyone, we can get this small victory for us, which is getting the car back into Q3 for the first time this year," he said.
"So I'm happy and proud and happy to show it."
Asked to look ahead, he was careful not to overpromise on Sunday. "I'm going to be realistic on that one," he said. "I think points are possible, but I think they're going to be very difficult." He pointed to the long-run pace shown by rivals the day before: "We have the Audis and the VCARBS that, honestly, yesterday in the long runs they looked almost half a second quicker than us. So over 50 laps, I think there is a chance that they will overtake us unless we improve the car massively from yesterday to today or tomorrow."
Even with that caveat, he was determined to enjoy the moment. "I'm going to enjoy today because we've been struggling a lot this year, and Q3 is definitely something that tastes really good," he said. "Tomorrow I'll do my best to finish in the points, see if we can hold on to it."
That satisfaction did not last long. Hours later, the stewards summoned Sainz over a breach of Article 2.5.5(b) of the International Sporting Code, for failing to sufficiently reduce speed under single yellow flags shown across Marshalling Sectors 4 and 5. Sainz argued at the hearing that he had made a "global lift" covering both consecutive sectors rather than reacting to each individually, and that he believed the car which triggered the caution had already cleared the run-off area.
The stewards rejected that explanation, noting that his telemetry showed no meaningful reduction in speed through Sector 4, where he in fact set his fastest time of the session.
The outcome was a five-place grid penalty for Saturday's race and two penalty points on his licence, taking his total to four for the rolling twelve-month period. For a driver who had just called Q3 a small victory that tasted good after a difficult season, the timing could hardly have been crueller, and he now goes into Saturday needing to fight back through the field just to salvage the points he was already bracing to defend.
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