Max Verstappen (Red Bull, author of pole position): “We have clearly improved the car. Every year here, it’s difficult to find consistency with the feel of the car and the tires, especially over a single lap. It’s very difficult to put everything together, to make sure you feel good in sector 1 but also in 3rd at the end of the lap. Today, once again, it wasn’t easy to find the right balance, we did it quite well but it wasn’t the most pleasant lap of my career because I was slipping and I wasn’t not totally confident on my ride.
In the race, we feel the car a little more under control and that’s what we’re looking for, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow (Sunday). I will have to be more efficient in the departure procedure. This morning (SATURDAY) In the sprint race it wasn’t perfect and I found myself under threat from Charles Leclerc. If I go well I should be fine. »
Charles Leclerc (Ferrari, 2nd on the grid): “I really felt at the limit. It was very tight until Q3 and when we pushed to get the last tenths, I started to lose the tires in sectors 2 and 3 and overheat them a little. I felt good in the first sector but it was in the second and third sectors that we lost time. The race will be long tomorrow (Sunday)we showed good pace in the sprint race and I hope we can put a little more pressure on Max (Verstappen).
I have to start as well as in the sprint race, or even better if I want to challenge Max. And at least stay in the DRS zone after the first lap to be able to fight with him. Otherwise it will be complicated. »
Carlos Sainz (Ferrari, 3rd on the grid): “It’s a bit of a shame not to have managed to pass Daniel (Ricciardo) in the sprint race, but the pace was there to get into the top 3, and we managed some clean laps. It’s tricky here with the new soft tires, and each lap is a bit of an adventure, because with the wind, you don’t really know what could happen.
When you finish a lap here, you always think that you could have gone much faster, but it’s almost impossible to do the perfect lap here. There’s always a point where you slide, where you overheat the tires, where the wind changes and surprises you, so it’s always a difficult balance to find. This is why starting from third place and on the clean side of the track is important. »
