Sainz admits Singapore was a breakthrough for McLaren

Carlos Sainz believes McLaren made great strides with the car In Singapore after the team recorded their best qualifying result of the season. Sainz came through in seventh while his teammate Lando Norris reached eighth.

To underline just how much better the team were in qualifying in Austin, they were lapping just 0.9% behind the fastest team.

“In my personal opinion, in qualifying pace, it looks like we’ve since Singapore we’ve managed to find something on the car that switches on the car in qualifying pace," Sainz said as quoted by Race Fans.

“And we are, these last few qualifyings, have a good decent advantage over them.

It is a key weekend for the team as they look to secure fourth place in the drivers' standings, they currently hold a 38 point advantage over Renault.

“In qualifying, we were eight tenths, one second [off]. In race pace that translates into a bit worse tyre management, a bit worse feeling with the car and that gap probably increases.

“So it just shows that we need to keep working in this direction and keep making the car stronger mainly also for a for race pace because that’s what’s going to allow us to hold onto them.”