Sainz: "We hope to have something on Sunday like in France or Austria"

MADRID, 3 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Spanish driver Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) hopes that the Dutch Grand Prix race can resemble those of France or Austria, where the Ferraris found "something more on Sunday" regarding qualifying, and he trusts that they can be "very close" to the Red Bulls, especially the car of the 'poleman' and leader Max Verstappen.

"In 'qualy' we have been a tenth; if the race is like this for 70 laps, we will be very close. Normally, on Sunday Red Bull, together with the Mercedes, seems to have something that we are not having. If we go back to France or Austria, we had something on Sunday; hopefully it will be more like those races and that we can stand up to Max throughout the race," he said at a press conference.

In addition, the man from Madrid was satisfied with the evolution of the car during the qualifying session. "After Q1 and Q2 it seemed like we were way behind Max, Red Bull seemed to have the winning hand. I was surprised how much we were able to win in Q3, probably that first lap should have been stronger to give me Some references for the second round of Q3. I have improved three tenths, but surely another lap would have made me do better," he stressed.

In another order of things, Sainz revealed that he believes that Mercedes will be fighting with the two cars of the 'Scuderia' during the appointment in Zandvoort. "I think they're going to be at least as quick as us in the race and I think they're going to be fighting after the stops. It's going to be a good fight," he said.

Finally, the fact that the track has a longer DRS than in 2021 will make everything "a little easier". "A couple of hundred more meters of DRS for sure will make it a little bit easier than last year. It's not going to be easy, because it's still a track where it's hard to overtake, but it's not going to be as difficult as the last year, or so I hope," he concluded.