Ferrari became the leading midfield team in Spain on Sunday as Charles Leclerc finished a comfortable fourth place after spending the first stint outpacing Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas.
Teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. failed to regain Sergio Perez and Daniel Ricciardo’s places after a slow start, but finished seventh to help Ferrari move McLaren closer to the constructors’ championship.
After the season opener in Bahrain, Ferrari had the feeling that the SF21 car had a drop in speed between qualifying and the race and had to struggle with tire management for a long time.
Team principal Binotto wasn’t sure if the problem had been fixed after the races in Imola and Portimao, but was pleased with the performance in Spain that the team had solved it.
“I think as Scuderia Ferrari we are pretty happy with the weekend,” said Binotto.
“We’re seeing what our goal was to score points for the constructors to get as high as possible and I think fourth and seventh places were a good result.
“But we also know that Barcelona is a difficult track. If you do well there you can usually do well on a lot of tracks and I think the car performed as expected overall, not just in qualifying.
“I think we had a good pace compared to qualifying and I also think both drivers had a good weekend [with] Tire management that would have been critical.
“That was missing from the first race in Bahrain [it has been a] positive weekend for us. And I think that was our only purpose for the entire weekend. “
Carlos Sainz Jr., Ferrari SF21, Lando Norris, McLaren MCL35M, Fernando Alonso, Alpine A521 and Lance Stroll, Aston Martin AMR21
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Leclerc’s run to fourth place put him one point ahead of P4 in the drivers’ standings and was right behind McLaren’s Lando Norris.
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The Monegasque driver echoed Binotto’s comments and said he was encouraged by how strong the car was on both Saturdays and Sundays, unlike last year.
“In any case, we were also very strong at Imola,” said Leclerc.
“In Bahrain, I personally didn’t do a good job of keeping the tires as good as I could have, and in Portimao on my side it was pretty good too.
“So I don’t think there’s a major weakness, like maybe last year there was a little bit more racing pace. I think it’s a lot more even this year and we’re actually stronger in qualifying and in the race, so it’s good. “
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