Despite a lap that was not yet ideal, Monaco is relishing the return to the front row that has been missing since Jeddah. A mistake at the final corner ruins Sainz’s good day
It looked like a weekend headed straight up, but instead Ferrari emerged with a half-smile from qualifying for the Miami sprint. After the error that occurred in Free Practice 1, which led to his exclusion from the match after a few laps, Charles Leclerc Instead, he found good feeling with the SF-24, regaining the front row he had lost since Q3 in Jeddah. It is not without some small flaws: in fact, there is always that first sector that is a bit problematic (this time Charles had two hesitations in the first two corners), and it is almost constant to indicate how the red color will arrive, waiting for the updates to arrive in Imola, no You still have some difficulty getting the softer tires to heat up perfectly.
Leclerc is satisfied
—
Despite the shortcomings, Leclerc is still very satisfied with the front row: “Qualifying has been my weak point for two races in a row, and even though I did a little better in China, I didn’t have the car to prove it. It was difficult, because I did one lap Only in free practice before I had to put in a big effort in qualifying, but I found that feeling straight away that the hard work I put in to put the tires in the right operating window paid off. I’m happy because you’re always evaluated for the last race in this sport and, When two qualifications in a row don’t go well, people start talking even if you’ve always done well in the past. So it was nice to be able to achieve this result, but now we have to work on consistency, maintaining this level and putting the tires in the right window as we always did before.”
Sainz’s mistake
—
However, there were fewer smiles on Carlos Sainz’s part: the Spaniard made a braking error as he approached the final turn, losing a few precious tenths in the final result. “There was a strange change – said the 29-year-old at the end of Sprint qualifying, which ended with the fifth fastest time – in the behavior of the car from free practice to the first qualifying session. We struggled to control the car and put laps together or sectors within the lap And we’ll have to look at what happened because I definitely struggled throughout qualifying when I put on the soft cloth, I had a good lap but Then I made a mistake in the last corner and lost everything. I’m not happy but I hope I can turn things around tomorrow in the qualifiers. Sprint race? I don’t know, in free practice the sensations were good, but in qualifying they were not good. “It’s difficult to understand in advance what might happen.”
He spoke coldly
—
To the microphones sky, team principal Frederic Vasseur reiterated how a small mistake in Formula 1 is really enough to lose several positions on the grid. A perfect example is Lando Norris, who looked like he was heading towards pole and instead was only ninth fastest: “I don’t know what happened to McLaren and I prefer to focus on my teammates, but it’s true that… The arrangement can change significantly from one compound to another. This time too it was two tenths, as always, one or two is enough to move from first place to fourth or fifth. However, Charles improved lap after lap after missing FP1, so overall it was a good session.”
No new comment
—
“Continuation of the weekend? “We don’t have a clear picture – added the French director – because we haven’t worked on the race pace, but we will take the sprint race as a test on Sunday. I’m happy with the work, without a doubt we didn’t expect Leclerc on the front row and anyway Carlos was also on par with his teammate until the last corner. This means we are in good shape with the soft tyres, but we will see what happens in the race. “I think we will have more downforce and maybe more drag than others.” However, there is no official comment on the Niue case: “I don’t want to talk about this thing. He will leave Red Bull, we have to focus on ourselves“.
© All rights reserved
“Award-winning beer geek. Extreme coffeeaholic. Introvert. Avid travel specialist. Hipster-friendly communicator.”
