Ferrari driver sees gap narrowing for Verstappen: 'Would like to believe'

Carlos Sainz drove one of the craziest laps of his career during the Sprint Shootout, by his own admission. The Spanish Ferrari driver was inside for almost the entire 15 minutes during SQ1 due to problems with the car but eventually came out to blast one more lap. Tada, Sainz set the fastest time in SQ1.

"I was pretty much thinking the day was a bit over, because I thought I was going to qualify in Q1 and all that, but then I did an out-lap, and I just kind of closed my eyes and went for it. I probably did one of the craziest laps of my career because I always leave one-time lap only and the track drying, I didn't know where the grip was, and I just sent it and went P1, and I actually enjoyed it," Sainz told the press conference after the sprint race.

"Hopefully, this starts to be the beginning of the turnaround, but at the end of the turnaround, it's still far away. You saw it today with how far ahead Max was, but I want to believe this is the beginning of the turnaround," the 28-year-old Ferrari driver said of the gap to reigning world champion Verstappen.

Sainz will start from the second row of the grid in third place during Sunday afternoon's race. In front of him are Max Verstappen and teammate Charles Leclerc. Behind the Spaniard are both Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton, with the two Britons trying to make things difficult for Sainz during the race.