Sainz admits 'it would mean everything' to win in Barcelona after qualifying in a season-high second place

Carlos Sainz qualified in a season-high second place for the Spanish Grand Prix, and the Ferrari driver admits that while a podium is his “target” on Sunday, it would “mean everything” if he could win in front of his home fans this weekend.

On his final flying lap in Q3, Sainz set a time of a 1m 12.734s, just under half a second off the pace of pole-sitter Max Verstappen and, speaking after qualifying on Saturday, he believed that was the “maximum” he could have extracted from the car.

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“It is special, that’s the maximum we could do today,” said Sainz, when asked how special it was to qualify on the front row in Spain. “We put ourselves in the best possible position to try and get a podium tomorrow.

“I think still will be tough with the Mercedes, the Astons and Checo [Perez] coming from behind but today was a tricky day, tricky conditions and we still managed to put everything together and do a good job.”

With the drivers being greeted by colder and wetter conditions in qualifying, as opposed to the hotter weather they experienced in Friday’s running, Sainz was also asked how difficult the conditions where, to which he replied: “Very tricky.

“Especially Q1 with how tight the margins are, a couple of damp patches here and there. To get it together in Q1 with the pressure was high stress.”

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When asked how much a win in front of the Barcelona crowd would mean to him, Sainz responded: “It would mean everything, but I know Max is on a planet of his own, in a league of his own.

“We would need a reliability issue or a very big mistake from Red Bull or him for us to win tomorrow. In a normal race the podium has to be our target and to be best of the rest.”