A qualifying session that met expectations with a great battle for the top positions. The gap between the top three (Hamilton, Perez and Verstappen in order) is only 87 thousandths, with Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc who manages to finishin fourth place only 329 thousandths from the top ( 1’14 ”740 ). A big step forward compared to last season.
Of course, after such a positive Friday, perhaps a little more battle was expected, while Ferrari must also thank the track limits sensors which contributed to the fact that Lando Norris’ great lap time (1’14 “454) was deleted. Time that would have allowed the British driver to start in third position ahead of Verstappen and precisely the Monegasque.
Speaking for the ‘Sky Sport’ microphones at the end of qualifying, Charles Leclerc commented on today’s performance: “If I thought it was possible to start from the fourth place? Last night yes, even a lot. But after FP3 I have to say that expectations have dropped a bit. McLaren showed something truly amazing. They found something more than yesterday and managed to have a very strong pace.” – he added.
“Personally, I think I did a good lap,” continued the 23-year-old Ferrari driver – “Mercedes and Red Bull are undoubtedly from another planet, but a gap of only three tenths gives us hope. I believe we could do some good things in the future. On the last lap I made a mistake that cost me about a tenth. For this reason I was quite frustrated on the radio. Looking at the standings, however, even having a clean lap would not have allowed me to gain a position, so I can be satisfied.”
To conclude, there was also a comment regarding the characteristics of the SF21 and the choice of starting on Soft tires: “I like the car, it has a good balance . We will now focus on finding a little more overall performance. There is nothing in particular this year that is going to damage our performance, but we are certainly not yet at the level of the top two teams. We are working on it. Starting on Soft ? We opted for this choice because we believe it can help us. We’ll see tomorrow if we’re right.” – Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver concluded.
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