Twelve months after the humiliating failure to get any of the cars into Q3 at Monza, Carlos Sainz has praised the team’s progress after having trouble 7th in qualifying at the Italian Grand Prix, his eighth place on the grid for Saturday’s F1 sprint to claim.
Last year Sebastian Vettel qualified for P17 and Leclerc for P13 in Monza – fortunately at a time when Ferrari’s loyal Tifosi were not allowed to enter the venue. But with both cars comfortably reaching Q3 at the expense of rivals like Alpine and Aston Martin – whose drivers retired in Q2 – Sainz was pleased with Ferrari’s efforts.
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“This is good progress compared to last year,” said Sainz. “You have to remember that last year one car was out in Q1 and the other was out in P13, so within a year we’ve been moving on this type of track that we know doesn’t match the characteristics of the car . But we want more and will continue to work on it.
“Unfortunately we have seen since the beginning of Q1 that we were a little too far from the top 5, and unfortunately we struggled to be below it on a track like this where we wanted to do so well ahead of the Tifosi the first five.
Carlos Sainz is happy about Ferrari’s progress after a “smooth qualification” in Monza
“But we managed to improve further throughout the session,” adds Sainz, “we did some good laps. Very close between Charles and me, here or there, so it shows that the car is where it is. We want more for the future, but today we have it. “
Leclerc would eventually qualify just 0.048 seconds behind Sainz – a fact made even more impressive by the disclosure that he was struggling with a drivetrain issue during qualifying that appeared to be affecting the 2019 Monza Polesitter’s engine braking on his Ferrari SF21, according to his judgment, radio messages to Ferrari at the meeting.
HIGHLIGHTS: See all the important moments of qualifying in Monza
“Today was a very difficult day for me,” said Leclerc. “We had a problem in qualifying, throughout qualifying… but we’re checking it for tomorrow – and we hope to fix it, otherwise it could be very difficult to drive the race like this.
“I won’t go into details, however [it was] something on the power supply that happened. I’m not sure what it was, but it was very difficult to drive. “
The Ferrari drivers will compete on the fourth row of the grid for the F1 sprint on Saturday – while the rivals for P3 in the constructors’ McLaren with Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo finished fourth and fifth in qualifying.
Charles Leclerc: Problems with the Ferrari engine made for a “very difficult day” in qualifying at Monza
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