Sainz pleased with gradual progress in Austin as Ferrari’s ‘ups and downs’ continue in qualifying

Carlos Sainz was enthusiastic about his improvement over the weekend after he qualified in the top three for the United States Grand Prix, keeping him in the mix for a potential victory.

After a productive Sprint saw the 30-year-old move up by three positions to clinch a second-place finish, he was determined to take the momentum into qualifying and give himself a better chance to pursue a race win.

READ MORE: ‘I’m lucky and I’ll take it’ – Norris hails ‘beautiful’ pole lap as he predicts ‘tough race’ in Austin

The question of how the order could have changed at the end of qualifying was left unanswered after George Russell’s unfortunate late crash, but Sainz was still satisfied with the final result that will see him start the race from P3.

He said that the aim was “to do a step in qualifying compared to yesterday”, explaining that the team have taken “a good step in the right direction” to put themselves on the front foot.

“Bit gutted for that last lap because I was three-tenths up on my lap going into Turn 16 with only two corners left, but it’s easy to say now,” he added. “Anyway, I think we’ve done some good progress and we should be in the fight tomorrow if we get a clean start, and with the two guys in front it should be a fun one.”

Ferrari demonstrated strong race pace in the 19-lap Sprint but appeared to struggle with tyre degradation, which could be a further problem in the Grand Prix with the added factor of changeable track temperatures.

HIGHLIGHTS: Catch the qualifying action from Austin as Norris takes spectacular pole while Russell crashes out

The Spaniard said: “I always kept an eye on [tyre preparation] because it’s something where we’ve struggled recently in our team to put the tyres in the right window for qualifying. We seem to be always quick in the race, but in qualifying we have some ups and downs.

“It was my main point to focus during the whole quali, and it seems like we got it right, especially that last lap before the yellow flag. It seemed like we got them in the right spot because we suddenly found a lot of laptime going into the first two sectors.”

His team mate Charles Leclerc is set to start on the same row of the grid after he qualified in fourth place, suggesting that the Italian team could be the strongest overall outfit this weekend.

READ MORE: Ferrari duo Sainz and Leclerc satisfied with ‘very high adrenaline’ Austin Sprint after display of strong pace

Asked whether he would have improved significantly had the session finished as normal, the Monegasque said: “I think it would have been either P3 or P4 so it doesn’t change much because it would have been with Carlos, so for the team it’s exactly the same.

“I think we have a really good car for the race. We knew that for qualifying we would struggle a bit more because we didn’t have any fix [for earlier issues], but we’ll see tomorrow.”