Sainz: Pole lap 'nothing special' but I can win British GP

Carlos Sainz has revealed he initially thought the lap that secured his maiden F1 pole was "nothing special", but is confident his Ferrari has the pace to win Sunday's British GP.

The Spaniard, driving in the 150th GP of his career, triumphed in a thrilling wet qualifying session as he edged out world championship leader Max Verstappen to seal top spot, with his Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc in third.

After struggling in Saturday's final practice session and scraping his way through Q2 with a last-gasp effort as the track got wetter, Sainz found his form at the perfect moment in the closing stages of Q3.

"It was a good lap," Sainz said. "I was struggling a lot with the standing water on the intermediates, there was a lot more standing water on the racing line and it was very easy to catch snaps and lose the lap.

"In the end I put together a lap that I thought was nothing special, but I just put it on the board and see how it is, and it was pole position, which came as a bit of a surprise."

The wet conditions meant most of the drivers in the top-10 shootout spent the entirety of Q3 on track, leaving drivers unable to go through their usual battery-charging procedures before a flying lap.

Sainz explained that as a result of performing consecutive flying laps, he was low on battery power, which led him to believe his chances of pole had gone as he approached the final corner.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1's Karun Chandhok at the SkyPad after the race, Sainz revealed he had a flashback to last month's Canadian GP, where he believed an overly-aggressive approach to the final corner cost him a place on the front row.

"I'm super frustrated because I've just seen on the delta that I've lost nearly three or four tenths on that