Ferrari: 48-thousandth gap to pole hurts

When the chips were down in Q3, with Verstappen the man to beat, it was Leclerc who again found a tad more than Sainz, the Monedaque and agonising 0.049s shy of snatching pole with his last jaw-dropping effort, and a tenth plus a bit faster than what his teammate had to offer in the sister Ferrari.

In a phase of restructuring art Maranello under team boss Frédéric Vasseur, Ferrari reported proudly in their Friday summary: "A thrilling qualifying at the Spielberg circuit featured an excellent showing from Scuderia Ferrari."

Vasseur added: "As expected, qualifying was frenetic. Congratulations to Charles and Carlos who made no mistakes and always respected the track limits, performing competitively from start to finish. Of course, the 48 thousandth gap to pole hurts a bit, but we have to look at the positives, of which there are quite a few. In the race in Montreal, we made a good step forward and we are looking to confirm that here.

"We had some updates here to evaluate on track and of course, being a Sprint weekend meant there was less free practice time to do that, with just one session. But Charles and Carlos both felt the benefit and I want to thank everyone back in Maranello who worked night and day to have these new parts ready in time for this weekend.

"Saturday is all about the Sprint, with qualifying and the race, but that will also give us a further opportunity to prepare for Sunday’s Grand Prix. There’s a long way to go this weekend, but we have started it on the right foot," declared Vassuer, after his ninth GP qualifying in charge of the sport's greatest team.

Winner last year in Austria, Leclerc summed up in the Ferrari team report: "It feels good to finally have a clean qualifying again and to be back on the front row. The feeling from the car has been a bit better in the last three races and then in Q1 and Q2, it was all about building up to that lap in Q3.

"I managed to put everything into that last lap and got very close to Max. We hadn’t expected to be that close to the Red Bull so it’s a good step forward and I would like to thank everyone back at the factory for all the work they have done in the last few weeks in order to bring an update package at Spielberg, earlier than planned.

"It’s really impressive and helped us to perform well. Now we need to confirm that in the races, Saturday and Sunday. Starting from the Sprint we need to focus on consistency and we will see on Sunday if we have the same race pace as in Montreal," ventured Leclerc.

Despite lacking the little extra that Leclerc found for the last attack at pole in Q3, Sainz was not perturbed: "Overall it was a positive day for me and the team, as we will be starting P2 and P3 on Sunday. The car felt strong all day and I was fast from the very beginning, which is always a positive sign. We don’t really know how our pace compares to the others, but I’m really looking forward to racing."

With the regards to the track limits debacle, Sainz had this to say: "Despite this good result, I think we should work together with the FIA to find alternative ways to decide track limits quicker and more efficiently.

"I had a good lap on my first attempt in Q2 and I was already preparing for Q3 when we had to go out again since there were doubts about my lap. This meant I had to use the extra set of Softs we had saved for the Sprint qualifying and it could have been avoided, as my lap was not deleted," lamented the Spaniard.

Ferrari are fourth in the 2023 F1 Constructors' Championship, 199 points adrift of leaders Red Bull, but a double points podium, beating Mercedes and Aston Martin on Sunday and tomorrow for that matter, would be very valuable as only 45 points separate the Reds from Black Arrows in second, and they're only 32 points shy of the Greens in third place.

As per this year’s new Sprint Race format, the Grand Prix is now put on hold with Saturday dedicated to qualifying for it, the Sprint Shootout, features shorter Q1, Q2 and Q3 times and just one set of tyres per session; Medium for the first two phases and Soft for the final one.