Carlos Sainz left with concerns: “Our rivals have a good step forward"

Carlos Sainz admits he's concerned about the pace of his rivals after the first two practice sessions ahead of the German Grand Prix. McLaren looked comfortable after previous Grands Prix and had opened up a 21-point gap between themselves and Renault. 

However, with teams bringing plenty of upgrades for the Formula 1 race in Germany, Sainz is concerned.

“Our rivals look like they’ve made a good step forward, so it’ll be interesting come qualifying to see where we are exactly this weekend. The weather conditions also seem to change a lot for tomorrow and Sunday, so that might bring good opportunities. We’ll be ready for that," Sainz said.

Friday's weather was very unique compared to what's forecast for Saturday and Sunday. Rain is predicted to have some effect on both sessions, and temperatures are expected to be 10c cooler. According to Sainz, this news is good news for McLaren. 

“I think the hot conditions offered a very challenging Friday to pretty much every team. For us, it was a matter of evaluating new set-up directions, which we did across FP1 and FP2. FP1 looked competitive; FP2 a bit less, so we need to analyse why," Sainz added.