The Scuderia Ferrari team had a good qualifying session with both drivers finishing in the top ten positions at the 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix. Carlos Sainz outqualified his team-mate Charles Leclerc for the first time this season as he finished in fifth position. Leclerc had to be content with eighth position.
Sainz has been in good form this weekend as he gets more comfortable driving the Ferrari SF21. The Spaniard took a good step forward as he outqualified his team-mate and will start from the third row.
Sainz starts on the soft compound tyres and feels with good tyre management he can have a good race. He said: “It was a very hard qualifying out here in Portimão due to the gusty wind and the tricky conditions but I’m happy with my session. When I was out on track I could feel I was driving well and we have been taking good decisions on the setup of the car all weekend.
“The biggest positive for me is that my approach seems to be working fine and the feeling with the car gets better with every session. There is still a lot of room for improvement, but I think today was a good step and I’m happy about that, though I would have preferred to make it into Q3 with the mediums. My pace was good with that compound and if it hadn’t been for the traffic with an other car on the second push I think I would have been in a better position to make the cut.
“However, since I had saved one set of softs after a strong first run in Q1, we decided to avoid unnecessary risks and qualified to Q3 with softs. Once in the top ten, a good couple of laps gave us P5 for tomorrow. Despite the tyre disadvantage for the race, I’m confident that with a strong start and tyre management from my side we can fight for good points. Lets race! Hasta mañana.”
Charles Leclerc: “I did a good job going through on the mediums in Q2”
Leclerc was disappointed that he qualified only in eighth position, but he has the advantage of starting on the more durable medium compound tyres. Leclerc said: “My performance in Q3 was just not good enough today and I wasn’t at the level I wanted to be. Everyone was struggling in these conditions and I think I pushed a little bit too hard. Once you do that, the rear of the car starts to move a lot and that’s what happened on my fastest lap.
“On the positive side, I did a good job going through on the mediums in Q2, which I think will be a strong point in the race tomorrow, especially at the start. We saw more graining on the softs during free practice, so I hope that this will give us an advantage with those around me all starting on the red tyres. We are all really close so in the end, the one who makes the least mistakes will be the one to get ahead.”
