Leclerc sees Red Bull excelling: 'Verstappen will drive his own race'
F1 News
- Ludo van Denderen
A week ago in Singapore there were the beaming faces, in Japan there were mostly questions and resignation. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, the Ferrari drivers, realised after qualifying in Suzuka that the Red Bull in the hands of Max Verstappen is basically going to be unattainable on Sunday. Their battle lies elsewhere on the track, the pair said.
A fourth starting position for Leclerc offers good prospects of a podium finish at the Suzuka Grand Prix, Sainz will have a slightly tougher time from spot six. Neither is counting on a win. "Max Verstappen is going to drive his own race, we are fighting with McLaren," Leclerc said according to the Gazzetta dello Sport. McLaren is second and third on the grid.
Ferrari lost time in Sector 1
A little further on, the same Leclerc did tell Viaplay' s camera he was happy with how his final fast lap went. "Yeah, it was all or nothing but to be honest, I'm very happy with my lap. I put everything together and, on that, I'm happy. On the other hand, we are extremely far from Max. We are so far off in the first sector for some reason. I don't really get it, compared to the McLaren especially, we are losing a lot of time and then it's all about catching up in Sector two and three but our car wasn't performing the way we wanted in Sector one."
For Sainz, the task on Sunday will be even tougher than for his teammate. The Singapore winner was quite clear about how Saturday went: "Not great. Obviously all weekend chasing the sweet spot with the setup and it doesn't look like we've ever found it. We've been playing around a lot trying to discover things and probably we got a bit lost. For today, we are, I think , in a decent position. It's not like we could have qualified a lot further up, so, let's see what we can do tomorrow.," said the Spaniard.