28/06/2024
NEWS STORY
For tomorrow's Sprint Race, Scuderia Ferrari HP driver Carlos Sainz will start from fifth on the grid, while his team-mate Charles Leclerc will be on the tenth spot.
It was another close session fought out to the nearest hundredth of a second and the Spaniard only just missed out on second row start, but the Monegasque had a problem in pit lane which cost him too much time, leaving him unable to set a lap time before the end of the session.
One flying lap on Medium tyres was enough for both drivers to make it through SQ1 and SQ2, after which both SF-24s went out on Soft tyres to go for just one timed lap. All ten cars waited in the garages until the final minutes before going out on track: Carlos posted a 1'05"126, just 68 thousandths slower than George Russell, fourth fastest on the second row. Charles queued up with the rest of the field, but the anti-stall kicked in and his engine cut out. He fired it up again as quickly as possible in the hope of completing his out lap before the chequered flag. But he failed to do so by two seconds and so could not set a time and had to settle for tenth place.
Carlos Sainz: Not the best afternoon. In terms of feeling, SQ1 and SQ2 was quite decent on the Medium compound. Then with the soft tyres in SQ3 I think we saw our weaknesses a bit and so we finished P5.
However, we still have time to adjust a couple of things here and there for tomorrow and hopefully we can have a better qualifying for the Grand Prix.
Regarding the Sprint Race, we'll try to score as many points as possible and I'm confident we can do a good job there.
Charles Leclerc: That wasn't the best start to the weekend. We struggled to match the pace of the quickest in the first two parts of Sprint Qualifying and then, when it was time for the one flying lap in SQ3, the engine's anti-stall kicked in while I was in pit lane. This cost me precious seconds and meant I was unable to set a time. Obviously, I'm not happy but there's still a long way to go this weekend. We will try and gain some places in tomorrow's Sprint Race and then start over from zero as we prepare for qualifying for the Grand Prix.
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal: We are obviously disappointed to have one car in P5 and the other in P10. We need to look at our performance on the Soft tyre, since on the Medium it was ok and we were in the fight with Mercedes and McLaren. We also need to work on the bouncing the cars experienced in the final two quick corners because it's costing us a bit of time.
For tomorrow in the Sprint, there is only one strategy and that is to push, because there is no mandatory pit stop for such a short race, so all we can do is push hard. We want to score good points with Carlos and bring home some more with Charles.
Check out our Friday gallery from the Red Bull Ring here.