Carlos Sainz Jr’s tenth place in qualifying for the season finale saw the Spaniard claim victory over Max Verstappen in Toro Rosso’s intra-team dice for supremacy on a Saturday.
Following a 2015 campaign in which 18-year-old Max Verstappen has soaked up the plaudits, fellow rookie teammate Sainz beat the former to a final spot in Q3, out-qualifying him for the tenth time this year.
With Verstappen managing to beat Sainz on nine Saturday’s throughout 2015, the margin of victory for the 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 champion is decidedly narrow.
“It feels good, but it shows one day can go to one and then the other day goes to the other driver,” Sainz acknowledged in an interview after qualifying.
The final 10-9 scoreline is a small divide fitting of what has been a close tussle for top honours between the pairing all year. While the points totals tell a different story, Sainz has faced a catalogue of reliability issues which have derailed many a promising Sunday.
With admirable pragmatism, Sainz added, “if it has to break down, it will break down,” but in beating his teammate and chief rival on a Saturday over the course of the season, he has underlined that he is a match for the speed of the sport’s newest superstar.
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