Verstappen already in Ferrari's head: 'That's going to be very tough'

Out of nowhere, they were suddenly there: the two men from Ferrari. In practice and in the first two parts of qualifying, the Ferrari drivers struggled to impress. They only just got through to Q3 and so a good result seemed almost impossible. In Q3, however, Ferrari still found a lot of time and suddenly achieved the front row of the grid.

How the Ferraris want to keep Verstappen behind them

Leclerc has already started from P1 three times this F1 season, not once did he actually manage to win the Grand Prix. "Well I'm not gonna say to the whole world our strategy for tomorrow, but we'll look into it. Obviously, it is a very special track for strategy, especially with the high altitude, time management is going to be a huge thing so we'll have to be on top of this. Then for the strategy we’ll adapt on the go in order to try and keep that first place," Leclerc revealed after qualifying.

Sainz was asked more specifically how he thinks he can keep Verstappen behind him: '"Well we’ll see tomorrow. He’s obviously a very difficult guy to keep behind because of the race pace they have over 70 laps. Normally one way or another with strategy or simply by offsetting their pace with tyre advantage, they can finish ahead. So it's 71 laps tomorrow and given the race pace, at one point or another, he's going to have a chance at overtaking us and I think it's up to us how we we manage the strategy and the situation to try and keep him behind."

For Sainz, it will be especially tricky as he starts on the dirty side of the track with the long straight ahead. When the Spaniard mentioned this, Verstappen was awake enough to ask if Carlos wanted to swap places. The Ferrari driver did not go along with that, although Sainz will also know that from P3, Verstappen has a big advantage with the slipstream of both Ferraris.