Ferrari is “quite a bit off the pace”, confirms Charles Leclerc
Despite any apparent issues during qualifying, Ferrari were unable to join the fight for top places, with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ending up sixth and eleventh on the grid.
Leclerc was the only Ferrari in the top 10, but the Monegasque couldn’t get in the mix near the front, having lacked pace to Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes in all sectors.
The Monegasque felt that his laps were clean, but he could not extract more from his SF-24. However, he hopes that his car’s race pace can move him closer to the sharp end of the field.
"We knew it would be a tough one today and we maximized our qualifying with P6, but that doesn’t satisfy us. We are quite a bit off the pace of our competitors and we are working night and day as a team to close that gap. I am sure the effort will pay off soon.
"The target for me tomorrow will be to keep our position and bring as many points home as possible."
His team-mate Carlos Sainz was always going to have a difficult time in qualifying, having missed so much running in the dry on Friday. He made it out of Q1 despite some worrying moments, but he couldn’t do the same in Q2 – missing out by less than a tenth.
"I’m obviously not happy with how things are going this weekend. Before this session I’d hardly done any laps with the slick tyre so it was always going to be very difficult to do a perfect qualifying around this tricky track.”
Sainz continued: “Then, in Q2, traffic around the high speed section didn’t help either and missing Q3 by less than a tenth hurts.
"In general, we are struggling with the car this weekend, but points are given out tomorrow and I’ll try to do my best to recover."
