Scuderia Ferrari has one car on the front row for the Australian Grand Prix, thanks to a gritty and determined performance from Carlos Sainz. It is the eighth consecutive front row start for the team, dating back to the last five races of the previous season. Just 15 days on from undergoing an appendectomy in Jeddah, the Spaniard was one of the stars of the show in qualifying at Albert Park and tomorrow, at 15.00 local (05.00 CET) he will start the 58 lap race alongside Max Verstappen. As for Charles Leclerc, he starts from fifth after not getting the best of laps on his second Q3 run.
Q3. Carlos was quickest in the first two parts of qualifying, with Charles right behind him, fourth in Q1 and second in Q2. They each had two sets of new Softs for the final shoot-out. On his first run Sainz posted a 1’16”331 and Leclerc a 1’16”435. On his second pursuit of pole, the Spaniard improved by almost two tenths to grab a front row slot in 1’16”185, a time that only Verstappen was able to beat. Leclerc unfortunately made a couple of mistakes and decided to abort his lap, thus saving the tyres for tomorrow’s race, which he will start from the third row.
Strategy. The race at Albert Park is usually incident packed. The Safety Car is often called into play and, especially in recent years, there have been several standing restarts off the grid. Strategy will require plenty of planning, as there could well be opportunities to exploit.
Carlos Sainz #55
From missing the race in Jeddah to this P2 in two weeks, it’s been an interesting journey to say the least! I’m very happy because coming to Australia I wasn’t even sure I was going to make it. We have managed to progress steadily session after session, knowing that the target was to arrive as prepared as possible for qualifying. I tried everything to get pole in the last lap but it’s impossible to be disappointed with today’s result given the circumstances.
Hopefully the body holds on during the entire race. As long as I have no pain and with the extra motivation from today, I will fight to get a good result tomorrow.
Charles Leclerc #16
I just didn’t find the right feeling today, starting from FP3. In qualifying, the front wasn’t as strong as I wanted, so I went aggressive with the front wing on my last run and ultimately, it didn’t work out.
With a good start, and if I get past Lando (Norris), we can focus on fighting the cars in front together with Carlos. The race is long and there are 4 DRS zones at this track, so overtaking is possible. Let’s see what we can bring home tomorrow.
Fred Vasseur - Team Principal
P2 on the grid for Carlos is quite incredible when you consider that two weeks ago he was in hospital having surgery. But he had a mega recovery thanks to the people who looked after him. It won’t be easy for him tomorrow, but I’m sure that his determination will help him make up for any physical limitations. Charles gave it his best shot as usual. He wasn’t prepared to settle for anything less than pole but he was out of luck. However, he’s been quick all weekend so I expect him to move up the order in the race. In terms of our performance, we have been consistent front runners since the beginning of the weekend, but tomorrow’s race will be tricky, especially for the tyres as they are one step softer than last year, so limiting graining with careful management could make the difference in terms of race pace. And we know that here, other factors such as the Safety Car or the race being red flagged can often play a part and we must be ready to turn these situations to our advantage.