Best time of the first free practice session at Spa, Carlos Sainz was a little further back in the afternoon after changes made to his Ferrari did not bring him satisfaction. However, he remains confident for tomorrow and qualifying.
“I was comfortable and happy with the car today,” indicated the Spanish pilot.
“I know that 5th place in the afternoon is not very competitive, but I was satisfied during EL1. Then we made changes for EL2 which did not give us the results we wanted, but given our pace in the morning, and with the right settings, we should be on pace tomorrow.”
“Verstappen looked really fast today, especially in FP2 with the soft tyre. We were a bit closer on the long runs, but he looks really strong this weekend so we will have to squeeze the most out of the car. “
Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen starting at the back of the grid, Sainz could have a boulevard to play for victory. But the Ferrari driver recalls that even without the first two classified in the world championship, the field would not lack candidates in the event of an opportunity to be seized.
“You are never alone in F1. If it’s not Charles or Max then it will be Checo, Lewis or George. It’s never easy. So I will have to be focused, achieve a clean weekend and see where that will lead us.”
Sentenced to the back of the grid, Leclerc prepares for a comeback
Second fastest in both sessions, Charles Leclerc will start from the back of the grid this Sunday and has therefore mainly focused on preparing for the Grand Prix, during which he will have to try to erase a significant handicap.
“It wasn’t such a bad day,” said the Monegasque pilot. “We did a few tests, and everyone seemed to be on a different schedule. So it’s hard to judge the hierarchy after this first day of recovery, but I felt good overall.”
“Our pace doesn’t look great when we’re running on low fuel, but when the tank is full it’s pretty good. We’ll have to make sure we come back stronger tomorrow.”
“Of course, we didn’t prepare for qualifying as much as usual, it would be useless. So we mainly focused on race pace in order to gain as many positions as possible on Sunday.”