Ferrari in second and third row in Texas
Even though they didn’t secure pole position, Ferrari can still be relatively satisfied with the result at the end of the Sprint Qualifying for the Austin GP. Charles Leclerc will start from the second row, behind Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, in today’s mini race, while Carlos Sainz will be at the front of the third row.
Ferrari is the only top team that hasn’t introduced updates in Texas, although the team will have the chance to properly test the package introduced in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza this weekend, considering the nature and characteristics of the COTA circuit. In an interview with Sky Sport F1 after qualifying, Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur expressed being slightly disappointed with the results but overall pleased with how the session went: “So far, so good, even though the result wasn’t what we expected.” – the French manager explained.
“In FP1 we were ahead of everyone on the hard tires, and then the softs worked fairly well. Q2 (on the mediums) went well, but in Q3 we lacked a bit of pace on the softs. However, overall, I’d say the pace is there, continuing from the last three races.” – he pointed out – “Did I expect a one-two finish? No, but better than third and fifth,” the Frenchman added with a laugh. “We’re up front for now. We certainly expected something better, but we’re all very close.”
“The cars performed differently with different compounds. Mercedes was better on the softs, as was Verstappen, while for us, it was the opposite. If we want to look on the bright side, it’s probably better for race pace since we won’t be using the soft tires. Let’s focus on ourselves. Let’s try to do our best. Honestly, the pace has seemed good from the start.” – Scuderia Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur concluded at the end of the Sprint Qualifying session which was held at the 5.513-kilometre Circuit of The Americas in Austin.
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