A majestic Carlos Sainz sent the tifosi into raptures at the Monza circuit, presenting Scuderia Ferrari with its 245th pole position, its 23rd at this track. Charles Leclerc will start right behind his team-mate tomorrow, in third place on the grid, when the race gets underway at 15 local time.
A matter of thousandths. Qualifying ran to the Alternative Tyre Allocation format, whereby drivers had to use only Hard tyres in Q1, Mediums in Q2 and Softs in Q3. Carlos and Charles got off on the right foot, getting through to Q2 using just a single set of Hard tyres, thus saving another set for the race and then comfortably made it to the final phase, always at the top of the time sheets, confirming the good form shown in free practice. For Q3, they both had two sets of new Soft tyres at their disposal and on their first attempt they set the two fastest times of 1’20”532 and 1’20”564. With the second set, they went back out on track with two minutes remaining. Leclerc was first out, improving to 1’20”361. The crowd was silenced momentarily as Max Verstappen went quickest in 1’20”307. But then the noise erupted once more a few seconds later when Carlos got his Ferrari past the chequered flag in 1’20”294, to secure his fourth Formula 1 career pole.
An open race. It looks like being an open race tomorrow with the team currently dominating the season having a particularly efficient car and it will not be easy for Ferrari to maintain that pole position advantage. However, Carlos and Charles are ready to fight from the first to last lap to make life tough for all its rivals. A one-stop strategy seems most likely and everything is in place for the team to offer its fans a great result.
Carlos Sainz #55
What a Saturday! It’s so special to get pole position here, in front of all the tifosi. I had a very good feeling from the car already on Friday and today we confirmed our pace. Q3 was always on the limit and we all took big risks in the fight for this pole. When I finally crossed the line and I heard the tifosi screaming like crazy and jumping on the grandstands I knew we had it!
The weekend is not over yet, we want more, and for that we need to stay focused and prepare well for tomorrow. It’s going to be a challenging race but we’ll give it everything to fight for the win and give the tifosi around the world something to keep cheering us on!
Charles Leclerc #16
Q3 was really on the limit and I'm happy with my two laps, considering where we started from this weekend.
The direction we went in with the set-up of my car yesterday wasn't the right one, although at first I thought it was. So we had to adapt and make some changes for FP3, a session that still felt a bit inconsistent. But overall, our performance was good today and the gaps are really small between all of us.
Let's see what we can do tomorrow.
Frédéric Vasseur - Team Principal
“We dedicate this pole position to our many tifosi here at the track. As expected, qualifying was very closely contested and Carlos did a simply perfect job. He has been quick since the first free practice session and he fully deserves this. Charles was only six hundredths slower, but that was enough to put him behind Max. This is the best team qualifying result of the season, which will allow us to have a two-pronged strategy tomorrow.
Over a flying lap, we knew we were competitive, but from what we saw on Friday, our race pace isn’t bad either. We will take a look at where we are after the opening lap and then see what we can do. We have worked hard and it’s great for the team at ithe track and for those working back in Maranello to see that we have made another step forward and that the effort everyone has put in is paying off. Tomorrow we will give it our best shot.”.