“Thank you Carlos”Leclerc was heard to say via radio, who admitted: “We did a great team job” to relegate the Dutch world champion by 304 thousandths Max Verstappenwho had dominated the third and final free session with Red Bull, but was unable to repeat in qualifying and looked somewhat disappointed.
“We had a good pace in the first qualifying cut and in the second it was better than expected, but it is difficult to anticipate what will happen in the race”, highlighted the Ferrari driver, whose cars showed better speed in the curves of the Paul Ricard, while that those of the Austrian team looked faster on the straights.
“Today we lacked something else in terms of grip and it was more complicated than we expected,” explained Verstappen, who rules the championship with 208 points and a 38 advantage over Leclerc.
“Overall we have a good machine to fight in the race and tomorrow things could work in our favour. We are very fast on the straights and we hope to take advantage of this situation,” added the Dutchman.
Even more disappointed was his Mexican teammate Sergio Pérez, who managed the third time and said about it: “It was a good comeback, but I suffered a lot in what was probably my worst weekend in qualifying.”
“My objective tomorrow will be to try to overtake Ferrari, but it will be difficult because they look very fast,” agreed the Mexican, who will start from the second row flanked by seven-time British world champion Lewis Hamilton.
The Mercedes driver managed to get the most out of his machine, despite which he closed at 983 thousandths of a distance, which seems to indicate the limitations of the German team with which he will celebrate his 300th Formula 1 Grand Prix tomorrow.
Hamilton, who finished second behind Verstappen a year ago and celebrated victory here in 2018 and 2019, will share the second row with Pérez, with whom he has had epic track battles in the past.
Behind both will be the British Lando Norris (McLaren) and George Russell (Mercedes) in the third row and in the fourth will be the Spanish two-time world champion Fernando Alonso (Alpine-Renault) and the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri).
The Australian Daniel Ricciado (McLaren) and the Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine-Renault), who did not make it past the second qualifying cut, will move from the fifth row, favored by the penalties suffered by Sáinz and the Danish Kevin Magnussen, who, like the Ferrari driver replaced the engine of his Haas and was relegated to the back of the grid.
Initially, the Italian team had planned to replace some components in the engine of the Spaniard’s F1-75, which ensured a ten-place penalty, but finally opted to replace the entire engine, the fourth it will use this season.
Ferrari will try to confirm its comeback tomorrow in the championship after Leclerc’s victory in Austria and Sáinz’s previous victory at Silverstone, after several Grand Prix in which it lost ground due to mechanical problems or strategic errors.
That is why Leclerc admitted in the preview that his victory in Spielberg “was very important on a personal level” and now he will go in search of his fourth celebration of the season after having also won in Bahrain and Australia at the start of the season.
Ferrari has not celebrated in France since the Brazilian Felipe Massa climbed to the top of the podium in 2008 in this Grand Prix, which was not held in 2020 due to the pandemic and was not run between 2009 and 2017.
Today, at least, he showed that he knows how to play as a team and offered Leclerc a new pole, despite having to sacrifice a Sáinz who was condemned to start from behind anyway.
Source: Ambito
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