Carlos Sainz's form was also confirmed in the difficult qualifying sessions for the Japanese Grand Prix. At Suzuka, the Spanish driver was the best Ferrari driver in the standings thanks to fourth place behind the two elusive Red Bulls and Lando Norris' McLaren.
Sainz, fresh from a beautiful yet unexpected victory in Australia, returned to Suzuka looking polished after the operation for appendicitis suffered in Jeddah. More effective on the flying lap because he is better than Leclerc at interpreting a third sector that is indigestible for the SF-24.
In Q3, after a good first attempt which earned him the fourth final time, Carlos was unable to improve his reference time. However, it was a level playing field for almost everyone, yet Sainz revealed a vague bitter taste in his mouth for not having been able to do better.
“We need to understand why he wasn't able to improve in the second attempt of Q3. I thought I could do a lap very similar to the one done previously, at least in terms of lap time. Instead, from the first sector I felt the car slipping and we didn't succeed. At the start of the session I did a good lap, but I thought we could improve. In the end the McLaren with Norris was ahead of me by a couple of tenths, and in Suzuka 2 tenths is a lot. I'm happy with my lap anyway.”
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari SF-24
Photo credit: Mark Sutton
Both in yesterday's Free Practice 1 and in Free Practice 3 which took place this morning, the Ferraris showed a very competitive race pace. Some had already thought of a repeat of what was seen 2 weeks ago in Melbourne, but it was Sainz himself who dampened the enthusiasm.
In his opinion, Red Bull would have run in free practice with higher fuel loads than the Reds. This means that tomorrow Sainz will have as his first objective to fight with Lando Norris for the bottom step of the podium.
“I think we were lighter than the Red Bull. Honestly, we are perhaps stronger in the race than in qualifying, but not as we appeared yesterday and this morning. I think the Red Bull was loaded with fuel, but I think we will have less pace than that It seems like it. We'll probably be fighting for third place with Norris, even though today he was consistently 2 tenths faster than us in qualifying.”
“Realistically our goal is the podium, trying to fight with McLaren. Fighting with Lando would be nice. Then we'll see where we end up, because I think the fight for the podium could be nice. Fernando is also behind me, there are the Mercedes. Red Bull is simply too strong on fast corners, on this type of asphalt. They have more downforce and these things can be seen in the lap times.”
During qualifying, Sainz also had to deal with a small throttle problem on his SF-24. Nothing worrying on a technical level, just a too “light” pedal, which gave him strange sensations throughout the session.
“I had to drive in qualifying with a problem with the accelerator pedal. I had to stop thinking about it, because it just felt too soft, but there was no risk. It was just a matter of going around with a strange feeling , that's all,” concluded Sainz.
#Sainz #top #pace #lighter #Red #Bull
