The pole position has been decided. The second day of the beautiful Suzuka weekend also concludes. In this qualifying session, we saw a Ferrari in better form compared to the last two occasions, which allowed Charles Leclerc to secure the second row for the Japanese GP, just behind the McLarens. Below are the comments from Team Principal Fred Vasseur after the session regarding the performance achieved.
The Maranello team arrived at Suzuka in the worst possible way. In the previous Grand Prix in China, both drivers were disqualified due to irregularities with the two SF-25s. Here, in the Land of the Rising Sun, the Maranello team was forced to respond to millions of fans worldwide. They needed to demonstrate the validity of the project that both drivers have often praised, but which seems difficult to extract.
The weekend didn’t start as fast as the previous two. Calmly, without many flashes, Ferrari sought to find the best setup to allow both drivers to fight for the important positions. As qualifying approached, the work paid off: from Q1 onwards, Charles Leclerc was consistently at the front, while Lewis Hamilton was a bit further back.
But it’s in Q3, where it counts, that things got difficult. Charles Leclerc, with a clean lap on the first attempt but no improvement on the second, stopped the clock at 1:27.299. He secured fourth, just over three-tenths behind Max Verstappen at the top. Further back was Lewis Hamilton, who could only manage eighth place, even behind Isack Hadjar. With a time of 1:27.610, +0.627 tenths off the leaders.
Immediately after qualifying, Frédéric Vasseur spoke to Sky Sport F1. “As for the race, I’m not sure how we will perform. The weather doesn’t look great so far. It would be one of the first times in these conditions here at Suzuka. Today we put everything together, although, honestly, we were faster in Q1 and Q2. Fourth place is obviously not our target, but there has been progress.”
“In the first attempt, Charles did very well in the final chicane, but he made a mistake during his last lap. Even if we put everything together in the best way, we ended up in fourth place, just a couple of tenths behind McLaren. We need to keep working. As for Lewis, he was at Charles’ level in Q1 and Q2, within the same tenth. In one of the two sessions, he was even ahead.” – he pointed out.
“In Q3, however, he couldn’t put everything together. The wind changed, and as a result, everything shifted. I haven’t spoken to him yet, but since he was fast in the first two sessions, something must have happened.”
In the final part, Fred Vasseur focused on tomorrow’s race. “First of all, I don’t think there will be a fire risk anymore since rain is expected. However, this means the track will get cleaned, and tomorrow will be completely different. Suzuka is very sensitive to these changes and to the wind. In our conditions, I would prefer it to be dry so we can learn and improve. In the rain, it’s kind of a lottery, a crazy race.” – the French manager concluded.
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