Sainz still upbeat after pre-season testing

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Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz said that he was feeling upbeat and confident after a strong finish to pre-season testing in Spain.

Sainz posted an impressive time of 1:19.837s on Friday. Despite some early glitches in the first week of testing, he completed 224 laps (1043km) in the second.

"What a great feeling to end pre-season testing with such a good day," he said afterwards. "I’m very happy with the lap time and with the number of laps completed.

"Managing to cover a full run plan was exactly what we needed before going to Melbourne," he continued. "We can now be a lot more positive about the season that’s about to start.

"It’s been a tough couple of weeks for the whole team, with problems here and there, but today we finally managed to put a very good day together
and we’re definitely ready to race."

Sainz never in contention for Rosberg's seat - Tost

Sainz predicted a tough battle in the mid-field of the pack when F1 finally takes to the track in Australia in two weeks time.

"It is going to be a very very tight fight for P5 in the championship, or to be the fifth-fastest car in Melbourne," he said. "Yo get into Q3 will be extremely difficult.

"I honestly think that the others have done also massive steps – Force India, Haas, Renault in particular, compared to last year.

"Williams is flying," he pointed out. However, he was circumspect as to whether Williams would prove to be the team for Toro Rosso to target.

"I don't know, it's probably a bit too early to know. But they are definitely very strong and they will be very difficult to beat.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.