Ferrari: "We have a good car for the race" for the United States Grand Prix
Following a strong showing in the Austin F1 Sprint, Ferrari drivers displayed encouraging pace in the main qualifying session, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc ending up third and fourth on the grid for today's 45th United States Grand Prix.
The two Ferrari drivers looked quick in the Sprint, but they spent much of the first few laps duelling with each other. Eventually, Sainz made a move stick on Leclerc, who ended up fourth in the 19-lap 100km dash.
The Monegasque appeared to struggle slightly for pace in the first sector in the main qualifying session, ended up fourth on the grid for today's 56-lap US Grand Prix.
Reflecting on his intense battle with Sainz and the tight qualifying session, Leclerc noted that "there was quite a lot of action in the Sprint this morning. Carlos and I had different approaches.
"While he pushed at the start, I saved my tyres to be able to push more at the end. It paid off for him and we learned a lot about our race pace, and that of our competitors, in preparation for the main race tomorrow.
"Qualifying went as expected, we knew we would struggle, especially in sector 1, as we didn’t change much since Sprint Qualifying. We have a good car for the race and our competitors all seem to have a similar race pace to ours, so it should be an exciting battle at the front."
His team-mate Carlos Sainz fought incredibly hard against the Monegasque in the sprint race, with the pair exchanging positions multiples times over the first five laps.
The Madrid-born driver then overtook George Russell before making a sensational move on Lando Norris to snatch P2 away on the final lap of the 19-lap Austin F1 Sprint. The main qualifying saw the three-time F1 race winner qualify third, with the yellow flag zone brought up by Russell depriving him of securing an even better starting position for today's 45th US Grand Prix.
"Overall it’s been a positive Saturday: we started out with a strong Sprint in which the car behaved very well and I was able to attack and move up three places. Then we switched to qualifying in which we knew after yesterday we had to work a lot on tyre preparation.
"The first attempt in Q3 was good and the second one was even better as I was improving my time and potentially could have finished a bit further up. In any case P3 gives us the chance to fight with the guys ahead for tomorrow. It will be a very interesting and tactical race and we are ready for it," concluded the Spaniard.
