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Carlos Sainz, in his first season for Williams, put in his best performance in the qualifying session for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The driver will be starting in sixth place and has revealed his plan for a successful race. Sainz noticed that the top teams' cars, which are all sitting ahead of him in the starting grid, don't face the same amount of degradation on their rear tyres as his FW47 does. This means that he will be focusing on a controlled approach to how he manages his tyres during the race.
The Williams driver made his second Q3 appearance of the season at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, and qualified P6 for the race on Sunday (April 20). Speaking about his approach, which comes from his observations of the top cars, Sainz said [via Junaid Samodien on X]:
"The top cars don't seem to degrade the rear tyres (like we do), but let's see tomorrow. I will try to be disciplined with my tyre management"
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Although he started in the points in Sakhir last weekend, Carlos Sainz sustained damage to his vehicle in a tussle with Yuki Tsunoda, causing him to not be able to finish the race and have to retire the car. He also had a DNF at the season-opener in Australia and a 14th-place finish in Japan. So far, the Spaniard has only scored one point, coming from his P10 finish at the Chinese Grand Prix.
Carlos Sainz's teammate, Alex Albon, will start P11 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Carlos Sainz reveals work with the Williams team is paying off
With this marking the second weekend in a row where Carlos Sainz starts in the top ten on the grid, the Williams driver is understandably happy. He has also revealed that he has spent time with the team trying to figure out what works with the car, and his P6 start has shown that their work is yielding results.
"Yeah, very happy. The second weekend in a row in Q3. The second weekend in a row that I feel I've extracted the maximum from the car."
"The work I've done with the engineers to figure out what works and doesn't work with the Williams is good. Seems like it's working now." [via Junaid Samodien]
Sainz will start behind the Mercedes of Kimi Antonelli and ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari that was once his. Max Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, George Russell, and Charles Leclerc make up the grid ahead of Antonelli, and Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly, and championship leader Lando Norris close out the top ten behind Hamilton.
