Carlos Sainz praised Ferrari for making the switch to slick tyres when they did during qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix, which helped the Spaniard finish in P2. Sainz actually topped the timesheet in the closing stages of the session, only for Lando Norris to claim his first career pole position after time had expired. The Ferrari driver noted that since he was one of the first to cross the line, he didn't make the most of the drying track, but was still happy with how the Scuderia handled the changing conditions. "[It was] very tricky, to be honest," Sainz said after qualifying. "Right from the beginning, [it was a] very tricky qualifying, but right after Q2 I could see that there was a chance that the slick was going to come into play "We had a very good strategy, pitting there two laps before the end and getting the slick up to temperature, and pulled out a pretty strong lap. "Unfortunately, I was one of the first ones to cross the line, which didn't allow me to exploit the track conditions, but it was still a good lap on the limit." While he will start Sunday's Grand Prix on the front row of the grid, he is expecting Mercedes and Red Bull to have too much pace if the race is run in dry conditions. "This weekend we're looking a bit stronger, probably our weakest condition has been the Intermediate," Sainz added. "We still have some issues there to solve, but in the dry we've been competitive. "Obviously, there's the two Mercedes and the Red Bull of [Sergio] Perez that are gonna be much quicker tomorrow, and we expect them to go through. But we will put up a fight and try to have some fun."
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