Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc will start in 4th and 5th for the F1 Sprint at the Qatar GP as he continued his very good run of recent form.
On the mediums in SQ1, Sainz was P2, almost half a second behind the flying Lando Norris.
In SQ2, he dropped to 6th, although his lap time was not fully representative as neither Ferrari was out at the end of the session.
At the end of SQ3, Sainz managed to narrowly pip Leclerc and Verstappen to the second row for the Qatar GP Sprint, finishing 0.269s off Norris on pole.
Ferrari looked mighty in FP1 as Leclerc dominated, but it was disappointment by the end of SQ3.
Understeer on the softs
Speaking post-qualifying, Sainz spoke about how they picked up understeer on the soft compound tyre, meaning both drivers could not turn the car as they would have wanted.
The 30-year-old was not helped by the fact that he only got a single lap at the end of the session.
“Yeah, I never try and read too much into FP1, because you never know the fuel loads and engine modes the other ones are running.
“The good news is that the car was feeling better in terms of balance than expected, and obviously the timesheets were reflecting that.
“But yeah, we went into quali still worried that our rivals could be quick around here, and that’s what we saw.
“So yeah, I think we didn’t maximise our package. Even though the lap was clean, it was just a lap with a lot of understeer in the car. And yeah, I just couldn’t turn the car for the whole lap basically.
“It was also a tough lap, because it was my only chance to put a lap, so I couldn’t risk it too much with track limits, which meant that, yeah, because I missed the previous lap, I just had to make sure I was getting a lap in.
“I think tomorrow we have potential to improve a lot the car, especially on the soft tyre, that is when we will run the car, and that will mean that we can hopefully make some steps forward.”
Traffic in SQ3
As well as explaining how the balance shifted between mediums and softs, Sainz explained that Max Verstappen preparing his tyres for a push lap gave him dirty air on his first attempt, leaving him with just one lap at the end.
“Yeah, unfortunately, we were in a situation where I went into sector 1 and sector 2 with Max in front and he was preparing his tyres, so I had quite a bit of dirty air following him around.
“On top of that, the car balance was just off. We picked up a lot of understeer from the medium tyre, which meant we were just simply struggling to turn the car.
“Then I needed to cool the tyres for a couple of laps, and when I went again, the understeering balance was still there, but I needed to put a lap in and that was enough for before.
“It was not easy under pressure, but also with that balance, understeering off the track was quite easy into a track limit, but we got it done.
“And yeah, we just know what we need to improve for tomorrow.”
Charles Leclerc will start in P5 for tomorrow’s Sprint after missing out on the second row by 0.027s.
The 27-year-old was over 0.4s clear of the field in practice. However, reality hit in Sprint qualifying as McLaren and Mercedes made big strides.
Reality hits
After the hope practice gave them, Ferrari returned to where they expected to be pre-event.
Leclerc was P6 and P7 in SQ1 and SQ2, before a messy final corner on his last SQ3 attempt put him P5, just 0.007s faster than Max Verstappen.
“Well, not good, because when you give it all and we are only P4 and P5, it’s not great, considering how important this weekend is for us.
“But let’s say that, for whatever reason, FP1 was a lot above our expectations. I would say this is in line with what we expected, so we’re coming back to reality.
“But yeah, obviously, after FP1, there were hopes that we could do something better, but we didn’t.”
Hopes for the Sprint
When the SF-24 did not have understeer, Ferrari looked extremely competitive and in with a shot of fighting McLaren.
Unfortunately for them, those hopes completely fell away in SQ3, and Leclerc is cautious about their chances in the Sprint on the basis of qualifying.
“If we look at FP1, clearly, yes [we can fight McLaren]. If we look at qualifying, no.
“For now, the most representative is quali, so we are not in the best position, but we never know.
“It’s always different coming race day.”
Ferrari trails McLaren by 24 points going into the Qatar GP Sprint, and Sprint qualifying has left Sainz and Leclerc with a lot of work to do as Norris and Piastri start P1 and P3.
