Sainz on the back foot for Sprint Shootout due to tyre usage

Carlos Sainz says he expects to be "on the back foot" for SS3 on Saturday due to not having a single set of fresh soft tyres at his disposal for the final segment of the shootout.

On Friday, Sainz qualified third for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix but the Ferrari driver was forced to complete more laps than scheduled in the session after track limit infringements led to six of his lap times being deleted.

The additional running saw him consume during the session his entire allocation of new soft rubber.

"I was a bit thrown off by track limits in Q2," he explained on Friday. "I actually had to run again, we played it safe and we used an extra set.

"Today I've used my six sets of Soft [tyre] due to the track limits issue, so if I get to Q3 we'll use a scrubbed Soft instead of a new which will put me definitely on the back foot."

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As a reminder, drivers must use medium tyres in SS1 and in SS2 , and then a set of softs – new or used – in SS3.

Sainz won't be the only driver among the front runners with no fresh rubber at his disposal for the final segment of the shootout, as Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso also used up their inventory of new softs.

However, a wet shootout session would throw all tyre bets out the window.

Like his Scuderia teammate Charles Leclerc, Sainz gave a thumbs up to the latest updates implemented by Ferrari on its SF-23. However, like the Monegasque, he hopes that race day will also deliver a positive verdict on the changes.

"Overall I was feeling strong with the car, feeling fast all day, which is good carry over from Canada," Sainz said.

"It does feel quite a step better in the high-speed corners, which was our main limitation in Barcelona.

"Now we will need to see our race pace, which we know can vary from track to track and we will make sure we try and put together the best possible race."

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