Ferrari misses out on pole position, but Vasseur sounds the charge at the start of the Sprint: "We can come back during the race"

While Charles Leclerc seemed to be within reach of securing their first pole position Classic Ferrari for sale In 2026, the Monegasque saw his hopes dashed by the superior pace of the McLaren de Lando NorrisHowever, he was expected to win after dominating FP1 at the wheel of the car With the most advanced car on the grid, Charles Leclerc was considered the most serious contender for pole position. But the MCL40, also extensively redesigned, regained its dominance in the final qualifying session, relegating driver number 16 to fourth place.

Less sharp than his teammate since the start of the day, Lewis Hamilton He, for his part, is only in seventh place, half a second behind his garage neighbor. We didn't really know what to expect; I expected us to be better. " regrets number 44 after the session, speaking to the microphone of the F1.

This did not discourage Frédéric Vasseur in the slightest. I think we lost some performance [between Q2 and Q3]. We lost it compared to everyone else, so it's more on our end. It's always a fine line in terms of energy expenditure when we increase the pace, and that's something we haven't completely mastered yet. We clearly know where we need to work."That puts things into perspective," the Scuderia boss said to Canal+. The pace since this morning has been good, both on single laps and long stints, so that's quite encouraging, but it's still frustrating to finish fourth when you've been first or second all day."

Regarding the second qualifying session of the weekend, the French manager is showing good confidence. We saw it with all the laps we did on medium tires, we were really good, very strong on the long runs. I think we can come back during the race, the start will be important (Ferrari has excelled at starts since the beginning of the 2026 season, Ed.). And then we'll see about qualifying tomorrow. There will be five sets of soft tires, and that's the best preparation we can have. I think where we're struggling a lot right now is when we need to increase the pace. When we run four sets of soft tires in a row, it should be better. »

Join us at 6pm for the Sprint race, to see Ferrari try to take advantage of their lightning starts and shake up the hierarchy from the first corner.

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