Carlos Sainz praised his mechanics’ efforts to get him out in time for today’s qualifying session after a crash in the final practice session nearly put Sainz out of qualifying before it had even begun.

After a heavy shunt at Turn 3 during the final practice session, damaging the front and rear of his Ferrari, Sainz’s mechanics had their work cut to get the Spaniard’s car ready for qualifying.

Despite having just over an hour to repair the damage, the Scuderia’s mechanics got the car prepared in time for qualifying, with Sainz rewarding his mechanics efforts by putting his Ferrari sixth on the grid alongside Charles Leclerc.

The Spaniard later paid tribute to his mechanics’ efforts stating that they had done an incredible job to get the car ready in time for qualifying.

“First of all, the recovery is purely thanks to the mechanics; the car wasn’t back until 20 minutes after the session, which made everything even pressed for time. They did an incredible job to put everything together and to allow me to go out.” 

“We sometimes talk a lot about Formula 1 drivers being very special, but Formula 1 mechanics are incredible, especially the guys today did amazing.”

Sainz admitted that his confidence had taken a knock after his practice crash, but after several laps in qualifying, the Spaniard got back up to speed and quickly regained his rhythm, which culminated in him putting his Ferrari on the third row of the grid.

“I was in doubt until I pulled out of the pits. Normally when you’re in that kind of situation, your mind tends to go into a bit of a negative state, because you’d just crashed, you’d just cost the team a massive repair to do, and you’re negative, you think you’re not going to make it.”

“And from then on, honestly, high-pressure moment, high-tension moment in Q1, with the red flags, with the lack of confidence in myself, in the car, but I managed to build it up little by little and put a very strong lap in Q3 that nearly allowed me to qualify in top five.”