Sainz enters battle with Red Bull: 'Trying to beat them'

Carlos Sainz had a reasonable qualifying session in Abu Dhabi. With a time of 1:24:242, he managed to grab fourth place, keeping both Mercedes drivers behind him. However, he would have preferred to compete with Red Bull Racing.

Christian Horner's team was once again supreme in the final qualifying of the season. While Max Verstappen secured pole position without any problems, Sergio Perez took the spot behind his teammate. Sainz is therefore not expecting an easy race, he told GPblog among others.

"I was really fast all the way through," he reflects on qualifying. "t was a bit of a shame with that last Q3 attempt where I was stuck behind Lando and the Alpine [Esteban Ocon] doing slower out-laps than what we were doing and in the end it meant that I couldn’t get the tyres in the sweet spot. But overall I think that it was a strong quali and we picked up quite a bit of pace from free practice.”

Red Bull, however, proved too high. "In qualifying we got a bit closer, but they still managed to have the upper hand which normally means that in the race they should be even quicker. But, it’s true that if we manage to put them under pressure in the race we will try and beat them, but our race and our focus is also with Mercedes."