Perhaps a Ferrari capable of threatening the front row was expected, but in the end a fourth and fifth place was achieved behind not only the two McLarens, but also the Mercedes of George Russell, capable of snatching third place from the two Reds right at the end.
As expected, the gaps were very small, with the two Ferraris being about a tenth and a half from the top and the first six cars being less than two tenths apart. A hard-fought session, where a few details really made the difference between what could have been a first and a second row.
The Rossa suffered from understeer towards the end of the session, but more generally from that difficulty in balancing that had already been glimpsed yesterday. With a more unloaded set-up than its rivals, which in fact gave the desired results on the straights, so much so that at times the Rossa reached 5/6 km/h more speed on the straights compared to its direct rivals, managing to find the right balance was not easy and the difficulties of a car at the limit and more sensitive to temperature variations had an impact.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
Overall, however, Frederic Vasseur believes that we can be satisfied with how the session went and tries to take the positives, even if there is still some regret for a session that could have given us something more: “Yes, I think that overall it was a great session for F1 with six cars in just over a tenth. We certainly paid a high price for this tenth because, if I’m not mistaken, we are two hundredths from the front row, which is a shame, but the positive side is that we are there, while last week we were 7/8 tenths behind and we went out to recover in the race. Now instead we are there and the important thing is that the race is still long ahead of us”, the Team Principal told Sky Italia.
“When you talk about a few hundredths, a few small details, any small detail can make a big difference. Without a doubt we had a better start to the session. Q1 I think was very good for us, then the track temperature dropped and we suffered more.”
Ferrari’s choice towards a more lightweight setup is a bit of a gamble, but Vasseur believes it could be the right choice: greater top speed on the straights at the expense of greater ease of driving. The hope is that this delta on the straights could be a plus in duels.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
“We have little downforce and this can be positive for tomorrow. However, this makes the car a little more difficult to drive in these conditions and perhaps it is easier to make small mistakes. This is the price we paid. However, overall the balance was not completely wrong, it was a good session. We would have liked to be on the front row, but it is fine all the same,” added the Team Principal, underlining how the choice could also go in the direction of the fact that Ferrari has experienced low degradation in other events.
The track has improved a lot since Friday, significantly reducing graining, which could push many teams towards a single stop, also keeping in mind that the additional pit stop in Monza is quite costly in terms of time. Even in the morning in FP3 we saw how the drivers managed to set their best time even with a significantly used soft tyre.
“In the last events the degradation was under control and we were better in the race than in qualifying, so I think it’s a good compromise for us. It’s important to have a good top speed in this situation and to be consistent, but overall I think we’ve always managed to be consistent in this situation and this season. Zandvoort was a good example of that. We were better than our opponents in degradation and I hope it will be the same tomorrow,” added Vasseur.
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