Sainz prevails 10-9 at Toro Rosso on Saturdays this season after edging Verstappen out of Q3; Spaniard reckons pace of top four teams means just 10th is up for grabs in Abu Dhabi race
Saturday 28 November 2015 16:57, UK
Carlos Sainz took satisfaction from winning his 2015 qualifying head-to-head with Max Verstappen, although stressed the final 10-9 scoreline underlined how evenly-matched the Toro Rosso rookies have been on pace.
By outpacing his team-mate by just 0.039s in the second stage of qualifying in Abu Dhabi, Sainz progressed to Q3 at the Dutchman's direct expense - meaning he also secured victory in their in-house Saturday duel.
Verstappen, F1's youngest ever driver and points scorer, is already assured to finish the season with more points than Sainz, but the Spaniard's campaign has been more heavily disrupted by unreliability.
Sainz, who will start Sunday's season-ending race one place ahead of Verstappen in 10th place, was naturally pleased with the result, although attempted to play down the qualifying 'win'.
"It feels good, but it shows one day can go to one and then the other day goes to the other driver," said Sainz.
"The whole qualifying [over the season], one up or down. If you do everything perfect like I did today it will end up [in front] for me. If he does everything perfectly he will end up ahead.
"It shows that we have been all year battling each other inside the team. It was a good feeling today, but it was just another fight, it doesn't change anything."
Marooned on 18 points compared to Verstappen's haul of 49, Sainz's position inside the top 10 means he will start Sunday's race in position to finish his rookie year in the points.
However, with reliability issues never seemingly far away from his STR10 and the leading quartet of teams proving far quicker than the rest in qualifying, Sainz is keeping race-day expectations in check.
"We had a lot of overheating in Mexico and that's a tough race for the engines. Even more if you run the whole race overheating!" he said. "I don't think about it. If it has to break down, it will break down. But I will do my best to move forward and let's see what we are able to do.
"It's not easy because the teams in front of us are in another level, as you saw, but it will be an interesting fight to see who gets that last point - even though [Sebastian] Vettel [who starts 16th] will come flying past!"
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