It's clear, very clear indeed: it's only Friday, but when we enter a Sprint weekend, this reasoning is somewhat lacking, as the starting grid for Sunday's race is decided immediately in the afternoon. In qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix it is pole position, as always now, of Max Verstappen finishing ahead of two excellent ones Ferrari, with Leclerc second and Carlos Sainz third.
Ferrari, what a performance!
Charles finally returns to the front row Leclerc. Updates brought to Spielberg track – tested Tuesday on filming day and this morning in FP1 – they saw a clearly growing SF-23. Leclerc, although he was unable to achieve pole position, is very close to Max Verstappen and hopes to be able to provide continuity in his race pace on Sunday too. In fact, the fact that Ferrari does well in qualifying is surprising, but not that much. The real litmus test is trying to confirm the good things seen in Canada on the race pace and, from this aspect, there was quite positive feedback in FP1.
Leclerc: “I put together everything I wanted”
Analyzing his second position, it's the same Leclerc spoke after qualifying"Having clean qualifying again is a really good feeling. In the last two races I had a good feeling from the car and today I had to build my lap for Q3, managing to put it together everything I wanted and we were very close to Max. To be honest: we didn't expect to be so close to the Red Bulls and this makes us understand the big step forward we've made. For this I thank all the guys in the factory for the work done; these are just qualifications, but they really gave their all during these weeks to anticipate the arrival of the update package and this helped us a lot. Now it's time to confirm it in tomorrow's Sprint and in the race."
Ahead of the race
In view of the match, the Monegasque is very clear: “We've had a good feeling since practice, but it's still very difficult to say because we're all really close. The race pace seemed good in Montreal, but we must focus on consistency. Red Bull has always been faster and we know it, but we will always give our best."
