Sainz details unusual factors behind Dutch GP qualifying misery

Carlos Sainz has explained a number of reasons contributed to his early elimination from qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver will line up P11 for Sunday's race after failing to make it through to the final part of the session at Zandvoort.

It has been a difficult weekend for the 29-year-old, who had to sit out the only representative practice session due to a gearbox issue in FP2.

With wind and rain impacting running in the weekend-opening hour, and Logan Sargeant's red flag incident wiping most of FP3 away, Sainz had next to no running prior to qualifying.

"I was still keeping my hopes up, given that I normally get up to speedy very quickly, the three-time grand prix winner told media including RacingNews365. "And [that] I could make it through to Q3, given I've been three weeks without touching the car.

"No dry running yesterday, at a track like Zandvoort. We haven't touched the soft tyre, tricky balance, tricky wind. Not the fastest track for us.

"All these things adding up, plus a bit of traffic in sector two with Nico [Hulkenberg] cost me probably Q3, but maybe I was being optimistic believing we could make it."

Sainz 'paid the price' at Zandvoort

Whilst Sainz felt getting caught in traffic could have been the deciding factor, he did acknowledge that he "lacked the experience" needed to get the most out of his Ferrari in Q2.

The Spanish driver also admitted that his pace in Q1 was down to having an additional set of red-walled Pirellis at his disposal.

He set the third-fastest time in that part of qualifying as the track ramped up quickly. His team-mate, Charles Leclerc, was less than half-a-tenth of a second off in fourth and will ultimately line up for the grand prix in sixth.

"I think it was more me getting two sets of new tyres. Obviously at that stage, I was there, or thereabouts, with Charles," Sainz explained when discussing how tight the first part of qualifying was.

"But then in Q2, I just lacked the experience [of practice], knowing what to do with the front wing, with the tyres to set up the car for a new soft in Q2 - and yeah, I paid the price.

"Not easy after the break not to do any laps in FP1, FP2, FP3 and go straight into quali[fying] with a soft tyre around Zandvoort, pushing flat out.

"I feel like I did some strong laps given the circumstance. But in the end, it just didn't click, with a bit of traffic, and it was always going to be tricky."