Sainz ecstatic with 'crazy' Q3 lap but wary of wind change for race

McLaren's Carlos Sainz was pleased with his car and himself after leading the midfield in qualifying for the US Grand Prix thanks to a "crazy" lap that put him P7 on Sunday's grid.

The Spaniard, who will enjoy his 100th career start in F1 this afternoon at the Circuit of the Americas, was less than half a second adrift from poleman Valtteri Bottas.

Sainz admitted to being impressed by McLaren's leap forward at COTA on Saturday, part of which he attributed to the Texas wind.

"Very pleased," he said, beaming after qualifying. "The two laps in Q3 felt amazing.

"I suddenly found some two or three extra tenths in myself and in the car that I didn’t expect to be there, so to go down to a 32, a 32.8 on the board, it felt really good.

• McLaren's Brown shoots down cryptic Rich Energy tweet

"It’s crazy, 32.8 round here, we got really close to the pole lap of last year I think, so McLaren has made huge steps forward, and today with the car, it was just nice to drive.

"With this wind direction from the north, the car switches on – for reasons we still don’t understand."

Sainz feared however that a change of the wind's direction on Sunday could hamper McLaren in the race.

"The wind is going to change back to FP2 so it would have a big effect on us, so heads down, analyse and make sure it doesn’t happen like in Mexico."

Lando Norris - who sensationally led the first segment of qualifying, a feat achieved for the first time this season by a driver not belonging to F1's top-three teams - shared his McLaren teammate's take on the wind at COTA and predicted a "tricky" race.

"The wind favoured us a bit more today which is good and bad at the same time," he said.

"Good because we took advantage of it and we have a strong position for tomorrow.

"But the thing is tomorrow the wind [will go] back to what it was yesterday. So it’s going to be a bit of a tricky race than how quali was today.

"But seventh and eighth is the best we could do. I only had one set of tyres in Q3 and everyone else ahead of me had two sets.

"I could have improved if I’d had another crack at it but I think I couldn’t have done a lot better so I’m happy."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter