Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr say they are happy with their qualifying results despite being beaten to pole by Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
Leclerc had been fastest in all three practice sessions. Sainz sat on provisional pole position after the first runs in Q3, ahead of his team mate. However Perez produced a flying final lap to beat the pair of them to pole.Despite missing out on a second consecutive pole by 0.025 seconds, Leclerc said he got the best he could out of his final qualifying lap.
“The lap felt good honestly,” said Leclerc. “I am very happy with the lap.
“All qualifying, it was about just keeping it on track and not making any mistakes which would have been very costly and then in Q3, on the second lap, I just went for it and I more or less put everything together.
“There’s a bit here and there, but I definitely did not expect Checo to come with that lap time so congratulations to him and I’m pretty sure he did an incredible job today.”
Sainz had been ahead of Leclerc in Q3 until the championship leader was able to improve on his final lap of the session. Sainz says he is anticipating an “exciting race” between Ferrari and Red Bull on Sunday.
“The lap for P3 was pretty good,” Sainz said. “It was on a used tyre, because the used tyre this weekend for some reason is giving me a better feeling.
“The new tyre, for me, is very tricky to handle and when I went on new for the last run of Q3, I just didn’t have any rear grip and I struggled. So for a used tyre, it wasn’t that bad, but again Checo and Charles beat me by a little bit so, it’s still okay.
“It’s going to be exciting, all four cars mixed up between the Ferraris and Red Bulls. So we will play around with each other with strategy and passes and it should be an exciting race.”
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OOliver
26th March 2022, 21:06
If you watched the lines Leclerc took, he was at the maximum and was just on this side of a crash. The Redbull has performance to spare.
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
26th March 2022, 21:29
The Red Bull seems less stable than the Ferrari and this is even more important during the race than in qualifying. I’d love to see Checo stay out front the whole race but I expect Leclerc, Sainz, and verstappen to finish ahead barring mechanical issues. I hope I am wrong about this!
ryanoceros (@ryanoceros)
26th March 2022, 21:31
“Sharl” Leclerc can’t be too upset about it considering the gap of 0.025s and it being the lap of Checo’s career.
f12007v (@f1fan-2000)
27th March 2022, 6:24
And considering pole may not be the best place to start with all the red flags and safety car.
iCarbs (@icarby)
26th March 2022, 22:03
Well done Checo great lap!
David BR (@david-br)
26th March 2022, 22:37
Ah the famous Ferrari ‘boxing-in’ tactics come alive again. There’s a good chance Perez will be swamped by a coordinated red car attack at the start. However there’s a rogue factor this time back in P4.
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
26th March 2022, 23:06
The Ferraris are in a good position for the race, considering they are quicker through the corners than RB.
It’s sort of similar to Bahrain, where RB had the better top speed, while Ferrari had better cornering speed and less tyre degredation.
Pérez needs to win the start or at least stay close to the Ferraris to put pressure on them, as does Verstappen.
If Leclerc wins the start, he will be very tough to beat. Also because the undercut is less powerful here compared to Bahrain.
Charles’ high fuel run in FP3 looked very good as well. He was setting consistent times in the low to mid 1:34s on used Softs.
MG1982 (@mg1982)
27th March 2022, 6:27
Go Charles!
formevic (@formevic)
27th March 2022, 8:01
The harmest track in the circus. It should be banned, definitely. I predict a wreckfest tomorrow, a ten safety car out, many red flags and three cars at the chequered flag.
Mayrton
27th March 2022, 8:10
Ferrari 1-2 is most likely. I only see this working for RB should they have sacrificed Perez’ race set up to stall the Ferrari’s while Max fully concentrated on race trim. And then still Perez needs to be ahead after the start which is not going to happen. I do not recall Perez being a good starter.
GechiChan (@gechichan)
27th March 2022, 9:57
Does anyone know who had better race pace in practice simulations? Is the Ferrari quicker?
Srdjan Mandic (@srga91)
27th March 2022, 12:51
@gechichan
Ferrari did some laps with high fuel in FP3 on the Softs. Leclerc was lapping at an average pace of 1:34.7 over 5 laps (1:34.5 wihtout the last lap). RB did their long runs on the Mediums in FP2, where Verstappen was lapping at a 1:35.2 over 11 laps.
It’s almost impossible to draw a conclusion from that, because they did their long runs in different climatic conditions and on different tyres as well. Plus we don’t know how much fuel each team put in to start their long runs.
If I had to put money on someone, I’d choose Leclerc. Judging by the Ferrari’s better cornering speeds and better acceleration onto the straights, they might have slightly better race pace and lower tyre degredation than RB.