Carlos Sainz Jr drew first blood in his Toro Rosso all-rookie battle with Max Verstappen as the Spaniard qualified eighth for the Australian Grand Prix, four places ahead of his team-mate.
Both drivers are making their Formula One debuts in the STR10 this weekend, with the reigning Formula Renault 3.5 champion having the upper hand over the European F3 graduate so far. Toro Rosso even came very close to upsetting sister team Red Bull since Sainz Jr only finished less than a couple of tenths behind seventh-placed Daniel Ricciardo.
“I’m very happy, it feels great to be starting my first ever Formula 1 race from P8 on the grid tomorrow!” Sainz Jr said. “It was quite a smooth qualifying session apart from Q1, where I made a small mistake, but I didn’t let that affect me and from then onwards everything went really well. I just kept focused and tuned the car to my liking to extract its full potential.
“I feel very comfortable in the car, I’m really enjoying myself a lot. It’s difficult to know what to expect tomorrow, as it will be my first race, but I’m looking forward to it. It will surely be a bit of an adventure but this is what I’ve been preparing myself for the whole winter an I feel ready.”
Team-mate Verstappen was also on course to enter Saturday’s qualifying top-ten shootout but the 17-year-old was denied a maiden Q3 appearance when he made a mistake on his final flying lap.
“I felt good in the car from the start and did a good Q1,” said Verstappen. “The first run in Q2 was reasonable, even though I had something stuck in my back so my shoulder hurt a bit. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good lap because the tyres were not ready.
“During the second push-lap, I made a mistake out of Turn 4, where I went a bit too wide and lost the rear, losing quite a lot of time. It’s a shame but I can’t change any of this now. I look forward to tomorrow, my first ever Formula 1 race. The car is working well and hopefully we will be able to score some points as we have a good race pace.”
Despite his error, Verstappen was still able to outqualify new Red Bull recruit Daniil Kvyat, whom he has replaced at Toro Rosso over the winter.
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