It was a Saturday of mixed fortunes for Scuderia Ferrari in China. The morning’s first Sprint Race of the season proved yet again that the SF-24 operates better in race trim than in qualifying. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were both able to move up the order over the 19 lap race, but in the afternoon, when it was time to allocate grid positions for tomorrow’s Grand Prix that starts at 15.00 local time (07.00 CEST), the Maranello cars were once again vulnerable over a flying lap, to the extent that Leclerc will line up sixth and Sainz seventh on the grid. It will be a tough race, with plenty of unknown factors to deal with, linked to tyre degradation over the 56 laps of this track that has not seen F1 action since 2019. Data from the Sprint Race will of course be analysed tonight in preparation for a race that will require the Scuderia drivers to try and move up the order.
Sprint Race. The day got underway with the Sprint Race at 11am (05.00 CEST) and Charles and Carlos both managed to get past Lando Norris shortly after the start to move up to fourth and sixth places and then a DRS train developed behind Fernando Alonso, made up of Carlos, Sergio Perez, Charles and Norris with a great battle starting on lap 15. Carlos attacked Alonso into turn 8 and the two cars touched at the next corner, which allowed Perez to slip by both of them. Charles also got ahead of his team-mate to move up to fourth and so the team duly brought home nine points for the Constructors’ championship, five for Charles and four for Carlos, despite some damage to his car, to help the team maintain second place in the Constructors’ classification on 129 points.
Qualifying. Just under three hours on from the Sprint Race, the cars were back on track to establish the grid positions for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. Charles made a relatively straightforward job of getting through to Q3, but Carlos struggled a bit. In Q2, the Spaniard crashed into the barriers at the final corner, which brought out the red flag, but the spin into the tyre barrier, with contact on the right hand side, did not do too much damage, only the front wing being affected and he was able to get the SF-24 back to the pits. The car was repaired in plenty of time for the restart so that Carlos also made the cut to Q3.
Q3. In the final part, the Ferrari pair each one two sets of new Soft tyres available. The contest was as usual fought to the nearest thousandths of a second. Charles’ best lap was a 1’34”289, which put him second briefly, with Carlos third in 1’34”297. However, once they had crossed the finish line, four drivers managed to do better, which dropped them to sixth and seventh respectively. It means the pair have a fight on their hands tomorrow, knowing they have a package that should allow them to aim to move up the order.
Charles Leclerc #16