A day after Carlos Sainz officially extended his contract at Ferrari, he’s gone straight from hero to zero. In front of the Tifosi at the team’s home race (it’s literally called the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari), the Spaniard had the potential to bid for pole position.
Yet it wasn’t to be. With the risk of rain at the start of Q2, the drivers rushed to get a lap in. Unfortunately for Carlos that would be as far as he got as he found himself skidding off at the final corner and straight into the barriers.
It was bizarre enough for us fans watching at home, but it seems to have caught the Ferrari driver completely unaware.
🚩 RED FLAG 🚩
Sainz goes into the barriers and is out of qualifying
Carlos is out of the car and appears to be ok 👍#ImolaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/UOcKHT5NvI
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 22, 2022
“It’s very frustrating, the target was to put a banker lap in knowing that the rain was going come. I wasn’t pushing really that hard at all but the car surprised me in that corner,” he admitted.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, he added: “It was not a lap that was properly on the limit at all. Unfortunately, I lost it. I had no warning. I don’t think I was exposing myself to a mistake.”
An unexpected and unwelcome surprise means that while his teammate Charles Leclerc qualified in second, Sainz now finds himself needing to rescue his weekend starting down in P10 for tomorrow’s Sprint Race.
Already trailing his teammate Charles Leclerc by 38 points, this setback is the last thing Sainz needed as he hopes to close the gap and prove that Ferrari made the right decision in keeping him for another two seasons.
Where do you think Sainz will end up in the Sprint tomorrow? Let us know in the comments below.
