It was a promising Friday for Ferrari at the Monaco Grand Prix as they finished 2nd and 3rd in FP2. Defending World Champion Max Verstappen led the times in the Red Bull, but Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ended up only 0.065s and 0.107s off the Dutchman respectively.
Speaking after FP2, Leclerc was happier with the balance of the car in the late afternoon session. However, he still feels there is room for improvement on that side of things.
Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari
“Yes, we are okay, but Aston Martin and Red Bull seem to be very quick as well, so we still need to do a step forward.
“The feeling with the car wasn’t too bad in FP1, a bit difficult, in FP2 a little bit better, but there were some things that weren’t as expected on my car, so we’ll work during the night to try and have the car exactly as I want tomorrow.”
Leclerc is certainly not boring to watch in qualifying, as the last two events have demonstrated. The home hero plans to go full attack once again tomorrow to try and steal pole position.
“I’ll give it my all, qualifying is everything here. Again, there’s lots of talk about my last race, but at the end, qualifying has always been one of my strengths, so I’m not too worried. I’ll go for it and let’s see what happens.
“I don’t think we have the best car Red Bull is faster, Aston Martin is thereabouts, but if we do a great job and if I put everything in my lap, then everything is possible.”
It had been a mostly impressive Friday for Carlos Sainz. He led the times in FP1 and was strong once again in FP2.
However, he blotted his copybook with a crash at turn 15. He turned in too early on entry, broke the right front suspension and hit the wall in 2016, just like teammate Leclerc did in qualifying two years ago.
“Yeah, it was a very small crash to be honest, I just clipped the wall on the inside of 16. [A] typical Monaco miscalculation,” said Sainz.
“A shame because I just gave the mechanics some extra time today, but in terms of confidence and in terms of lap time, I’ve been on it the whole day and just a small miscalculation in one corner is not going to affect it.”
Although Ferrari looked very quick, Sainz believes it will a big effort to topple Red Bull for pole in qualifying tomorrow.
“I think we’re on the right track to at least challenge it for it. I think the Red Bull is still quick, they’re still leading after today, but we’ve been closer than any other weekend and we hope that we can at least give them a run for their money, but I think it’s still going to be tricky.”
Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari
