Fifth position on the starting grid in Portimao for Carlos Sainz, who for the first time managed to put together a better flying than Charles Leclerc, as the Monegasque driver will start from P8 tomorrow.
Scuderia Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto said he was satisfied at the end of Saturday in the Algarve, also taking into consideration the fact that the elimination in Q1 of Daniel Ricciardo offers Ferrari a great chance to overtake McLaren in the constructors’ standings or at least to close the gap that is currently of seven lengths.
“The glass is half full” – the words of Mattia Binotto at the microphones of Sky Sport F1 – “only three teams have both drivers in the top-10. Our goal for the weekend is to stay ahead of McLaren and it’s a realistic goal. Charles Leclerc did not do his best qualifying, but he will start with medium tires. Carlos is improving from this point of view. He was very close to Perez. Today we are the best of the group that is chasing the leaders and we want to position ourselves here.”
Charles Leclerc did not manage the best Q3 today, but instead put his start with medium tires in Q2 in a safe place, unlike Carlos Sainz: “I’m very happy with how Carlos is behaving, how he is driving. He is truly proving its worth with facts. Charles tried too hard, he was aggressive. Carlos Sainz, on the other hand, was able to manage the situation very well, we knew that with the soft it could be difficult.”
In view of the race, however, Charles Leclerc will have the advantage of the best compound: “The soft creates a bit of graining, you can’t push the front as you would like. On the race pace, especially in these difficult conditions, counting on a more solid front helps. We think that averaging in the first stint and then using the hard compound is the best combination for this race ”, concluded Mattia Binotto.
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