31/08/2024
NEWS STORY
As was entirely predictable, qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix turned out to be the closest of the season so far.
The first six cars were covered by just 186 thousandths, beating the previous closest session of the season in Canada, when the gap was just 228 thousandths. Charles Leclerc will start from the second row in fourth place and his Scuderia Ferrari HP team-mate Carlos Sainz will line up fifth on row three. With the teams so evenly matched and on a Monza track where overtaking is relatively straightforward, there is still everything to play for and it will be very important to see at what pace the first few laps are run and how everyone's tyres will behave, as in free practice, graining was evident on the long runs.
Both Ferrari drivers comfortably made the cut to Q3 and Charles and Carlos had two new sets of Soft tyres each. On his first run, the Spaniard did a 1'19"701, three thousandths quicker than his team-mate. On their second sets, they both improved, but their positions were reversed. Sainz managed a 1'19"467, which Leclerc bettered by just six thousandths. The Monegasque was only 0"134 slower than polesitter Lando Norris and 25 thousandths behind second-placed Oscar Piastri. Then George Russell managed to split the McLaren and the Ferrari to outpace Leclerc by 21 thousandths.
In Monza, as was already the case last weekend in Zandvoort, getting every small detail right will be vital. Charles and Carlos will be looking to get the best start possible to overtake Russell and keep in touch with the McLaren duo, who once again appear to have the edge. Then it will be a case of managing the tyres perfectly so as to try and chase them down. On paper, this should be a one-stop race, but there have been many red flags and interruptions so far this weekend, also in the junior categories and if that happens tomorrow it could present opportunities that will have to be grasped firmly. Charles and Carlos can count on the support of the thousands of tifosi who have already been rolling out their gigantically choreographed heart shape in the grandstands. When the race starts at 15.00, everyone in the team will be pushing to the maximum to give them something to cheer about as they invade the track as usual to stand under the podium after the race.
Charles Leclerc: Qualifying was tricky. We had some understeer, which is something I already felt in the practice sessions yesterday, so I struggled in some corners, especially in the first sector. That's where we lost the most lap time and what ultimately may have cost us a chance to fight for pole. P4 was the best we could do today, but that's not the kind of position we want to fight for, so we are going to work on finding what we are missing ahead of tomorrow's race.
I expect this to be a tyre management race, so whoever does the best job there should come out on top. I will give it everything and I hope that we can bring home a victory for our tifosi.
Carlos Sainz: We knew it was going to be close. Pole was a tenth away and that's obviously frustrating. Looking at the data afterwards you always think you could have done better here or there, but the track temperature dropped a bit in Q3 and because of this maybe we picked up some extra understeer that didn't help.
However, I feel like we pretty much extracted the maximum today and I remain confident for tomorrow. With a solid race execution we should target gaining positions and offer our tifosi a good show. I'm really looking forward to it.
Fred Vasseur, Team Principal: I think this was a very good show for Formula 1 with six cars at the front within less than two tenths of a second and overall, it was a good session, even if of course we would have loved to be on the front row. We have paid a high price for gaps that are so small and it's a shame we are just two hundredths off the front row. On the positive side we are so close to the cars in front that I think we can fight in the race and everything is still possible.
We were running somewhat on the low downforce side which again could be a positive for tomorrow, but it probably made the car more difficult to drive in qualifying, but it will give us more top speed in the race.
In the last couple of events we had the tyre degradation under control, maybe more so than our closest competitors and had a better race performance than in qualifying. As for strategy tomorrow, it will depend on the pace at which the opening laps are run. If it is a very high pace then a two-stop might be a consideration and the new tarmac will influence that. One thing's for certain, it will be a very close fight and our fans will be supporting us from start to finish.