Ferrari confirms slight progress in Budapest qualifying

The Hungarian Grand Prix weekend has not been easy for Ferrari so far, but the Scuderia managed to salvage a reasonable result for the Sunday’s Budapest F1 race with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc set to line up fourth and sixth respectively on the grid.

Ferrari has had an up-and-down weekend so far. The Scuderia topped the opening practice, but was unable to keep up with the field-leading McLaren and Red Bull after FP1.

Charles Leclerc's heavy crash in the early stages of the second practice was also a further hurdle to overcome for the Scuderia. Although the Italian outfit repaired Leclerc's car, but the Monegasque and the Spaniard could only take P4 and P6 for the race respectively.

"We had a good qualifying overall, with very solid laps every time I was on track, pushing our car to the limit," started Sainz. "We've improved a bit this weekend, but looking at the timesheet I think today's P4 was the best result we could achieve.

"Tomorrow we need to be extremely focused the entire race because there could be opportunities and we need to make sure we are there to take them. Let’s race"

Commenting on his day behind the wheel of the SF-24, Leclerc said: "P6 is not a result I am happy with. My lap in Q3 was not the cleanest, but after the red flag, we knew it would be really hard to improve and we gave it a shot anyway. I think it was the best we could do today.

"Overall, we have to work on regaining the pace we had at the start of the season. Tomorrow, we will push to maximise our team points and we will see where that leads us," the Monegasque concluded.

Team boss Fred Vasseur insisted that the qualifying reflected the current pecking order while he also urged his team to make further improvement to the SF-24.

"Today’s result reflects the situation in terms of the hierarchy among the teams. McLaren were quick in all conditions and they deserve to be on the front row, while we need to focus on ourselves.

"During free practice the track temperature was almost 60 degrees and then for qualifying, we had a light shower at the start and it was much cooler, and this made the session more difficult to manage, even if the conditions are the same for everyone.

"Of course, it would be better to start near the front, but from P4 and P6 we can still score good points and aim for the podium, as we think we have a competitive race pace. It’s not as difficult as it used to be to overtake here, especially with the second DRS zone so we must see what we can do tomorrow in what will be a tyre management race, as it is expected to be warm again.

"It’s clear we still need to push on our car development to catch up with those who are in front but meanwhile we have to maximise the points haul in tomorrow’s race," concluded the Frenchman.