Scuderia Ferrari had Carlos Sainz second and Charles Leclerc 19th in qualifying for the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix Round 8 F1. Contrasting fortunes for the two Ferrari drivers. Leclerc started complaining about the car in FP3 and his complaints continued in qualifying. He was struggling with his tyres, running wide on the first run and then started complaining about the brakes.
Leclerc was eliminated in Q1 for the first time in four years and he looked very grumpy afterwards. However, Sainz progressed to Q3 and took the lead in his home field in Q3 with one set of fresh tyres. Carlos Sainz: “I’m happy with qualifying today. The conditions were never easy, but we managed to put some good laps together and I think we got everything out of the car this afternoon. I left nothing behind,” he said. “But the weekend isn’t over yet, so now we have to run the best possible race. The time gap was very tight all weekend so it won’t be easy, but we’re aiming. I let’s go, thanks for the great support from the grandstands! Hopefully we can have a good show tomorrow.” So we have to check the car and look at the data,” he said. “Basically there was no rear grip. The car was oversteer and unpredictable. I thought it was going to be fine, but suddenly it broke. The right rear corner was the culprit. On at first it was the first tyre. I thought it was the fault, so I changed to new tyres, but the rear tires were still behaving strangely.” “Of course, it’s very disappointing, but tomorrow will be a long race. The classification is a big factor so we’ll see how it goes. goes, but of course we’ll start quite far back, ” said Frédéric Vasseur, head of the Scuderia Ferrari F1 team, “Carlos did a very good job and I’m very happy with him. I think it’s a good reward for everyone who works in Maranello who worked so hard to get all the upgrades and parts to Barcelona in time. It was quite a challenge for them, but I think it paid off today and hopefully it will be in the race tomorrow.” “But it wasn’t easy qualifying for us as our other car will be last on the grid tomorrow. Charles’ issue is being investigated. I was very unhappy with the behaviour, which is disappointing and shows how close qualifying now between the teams, where before the top two or three teams could go through Q2 on the medium tyre. , now the gap is so narrow that such a thing is impossible, and like Charles today, there is still is the least problem out.” “Overall, I think we have made a step forward. “The important thing is tomorrow and we have to fight for the podium together with Carlos. As for Charles, I don’t know if Barcelona is an easy place to overtake, but the new plan will help him and he will be able to fight for points tomorrow.”
