Carlos Sainz has given Ferrari a big boost in their Constructors’ Championship battle with McLaren by qualifying second for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

In a surprising display of speed, Sainz was just 0.098 seconds behind pole-sitter George Russell, while his teammate, Charles Leclerc, also delivered a strong result with fourth place.

Ferrari is 36 points behind McLaren in the standings, with just three races left in the season. After back-to-back wins in Austin and Mexico, Ferrari has become McLaren’s main challenger for second place.

On top of that, McLaren drivers, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, managed to only qualify sixth and eighth in Las Vegas, giving Ferrari a big chance to reduce the gap in the championship.

Sainz knows a win in Las Vegas could be a turning point, especially with the Qatar Grand Prix, where Ferrari may struggle more, coming up next.

“I honestly think we need wins also to beat McLaren,” the Spaniard said during the FIA post-qualifying press conference.

“It’s not like we can afford to just be in front of them because they have a big gap in the championship.”

“And then we’re going to Qatar. That is not going to be a good track for us and we’re going to be struggling there.

“So, yeah, I think we need to win. So it’s not like it changes much my approach.”

Sainz dismissed any concerns about pressure from the drivers behind him. Instead, he’s focused on chasing Russell, who isthe only one starting ahead of him.

“I think we are genuinely fighting for the win with Mercedes tomorrow,” he said.

“They went through a run of winning, I think, three consecutive races in mid-season and whenever they get it together, they are very, very fast and the fastest, like they’ve shown today.

“So I think we’re definitely going to fight George.

However, he also acknowledged that Pierre Gasly, who secured an amazing third place on the Sunday’s grid for Alpine, could be a surprise contender.

“I think Pierre, if he keeps these lap times, why not?

“And of course, Charles [Leclerc] behind in P4 and who is P5? Max [Verstappen]. Maybe with his higher downforce car can take better care of the tyres and the graining and then suddenly he can get in the mix also.

“So I think we’re fighting many cars and I think that is the beauty of Formula 1 nowadays, it’s that we went into this qualifying with four teams being capable of taking pole position, four teams capable of winning tomorrow if you put everything together and that’s a great thing for everyone, I think,” he concluded.