Based on Friday’s performance, Ferrari looked poised to have a strong weekend. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were in the top five mix during first and second practice. It was easy to picture at least one Prancing Horse on the podium.
During Saturday’s qualifying session, Leclerc was frustrated with the SF-24 despite its upgrades. While he wasn’t as far off the pace as at Zandvoort last week, where he was nearly a second off pole, missing out on the top three at such an important race for Ferrari was bitterly disappointing. Sainz, who qualified fifth, shared his teammate’s dissatisfaction:
💬 “It is frustrating, obviously – it is a tenth and a half. I had a big understeer moment in Turn 6, Lesmo 1, another big understeer moment in Parabolica, which cost me probably half a tenth to a tenth each, When you see the gaps, you realize if maybe we nailed the balance in the high speed, we could have been fighting for it [pole]. But I guess it is going to be a similar situation for everyone, and just shows how sensitive these cars are to anything that happens with the weather.”
Leclerc said he experienced understeer in Turns 1, 2, 4 and 5 during the first two practices, but the problem wasn’t evident during FP3. It returned in qualifying, but Leclerc doesn’t expect it to be an issue during the grand prix. Ferrari expected McLaren to be strong, and Sainz felt Sunday “is going to be all about who manages the graining better, and normally, in that case, it is who gets clean air does a better job.
💬 “I think it is going to be a very tough, tight race across eight cars, and it is going to be all about seeing who manages to get rid of the graining for tomorrow because once it appears, you have one or two seconds of degradation which we’ve never seen before.”
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