Based on Friday’s performance, Ferrari It looked like it would be a pretty strong weekend. Charles Leclerc And Carlos Sainz were in the top five during first and second practice. It was easy to imagine at least one Prancing Horse on the podium.
During Saturday’s qualifying session, Leclerc was disappointed despite the upgrades to the SF-24. Although he wasn’t off the pace like he was at Zandvoort last week, where he was almost a second behind, it was extremely disappointing to miss out on the top three in such an important race for Ferrari. Sainz, who qualified fifth, shared his teammate’s dissatisfaction:
“It’s disappointing, obviously – it’s a tenth and a half. I had a big understeer moment at Turn 6, Lesmo 1, another big understeer moment at Parabolica that probably cost me half a tenth to a tenth, when you see the laps, you realise if we had kept the balance at higher speeds, we could have fought for it (pole). But I think it’s going to be a similar situation for everyone, and it just shows how sensitive these cars are to anything that happens with the weather.”
Leclerc said he experienced understeer at Turns 1, 2, 4 and 5 during the first two practices, but the problem was not evident during FP3. It returned in qualifying, but Leclerc does not expect it to be an issue during the Grand Prix. Ferrari expected McLaren to be stronger, and Sainz felt that on Sunday “everything will depend on who manages the graining better, and generally, in that case, it is the one who gets the clean air that does a better job”.
“I think it will be a very tough, tight race between the eight cars, and it will be interesting to see who manages to get rid of the graining for tomorrow, because once it appears, you face a drop of one or two seconds, which we have never seen before.”
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