Leclerc: There is a problem, I'm sure, engine-wise

Seventh is not the place would expect the #16 Ferrari to end up in qualifying, especially with the F1-75's superior one-lap pace which Charles Leclerc has employed to secure nine poles in 2022.

But the Monegasque revealed his car was not responding to his throttle inputs meaning he has to start the race on Sunday from seventh hoping for a rectification of the problem by then.

"It was a difficult session but there is a problem, I’m sure," Leclerc told Formula 1's official website. "We need to look into it. It was mostly engine-wise; we were losing a lot of time down the straight and there were loads of problems with drivability.

"The throttle was not really… I mean the engine was not responding to the throttle input I was giving," he explained.

"Especially in the high speed it was extremely difficult. I really hope we can fix that for tomorrow. If yes, I feel confident we can have a good result, if not I’m not sure how it will go.

"I think this is really a one-off. For me it was really strange. We need to look into it and I hope we can find something for tomorrow," Leclerc added.

Carlos Sainz started his weekend with promise of another pole following his latest in Austin a week earlier as he was fastest in FP1 on Friday, but the tide turned for qualifying and the Spaniard was fifth fastest in qualifying.

"It was a fight. A clear fight out there, I think you could see it from the outside," he said. "I don’t know if we haven’t nailed the set-up, or we just got it wrong with tyres or the altitude is just affecting us a bit too much here, but it’s clear the car over one lap hasn’t been as competitive as it has been in other Grands Prix.

"For me, it was more the unpredictability of our car more than anything else," he added. "And now we need to focus clearly on putting a good race together knowing that this weekend we might not be the fastest.

"When the car is so tricky, putting a good lap together in quali is always tricky," the Spaniard maintained.

Later in Ferrari's media brief, Sainz said: "It was a difficult qualifying. Riding the kerbs was very tricky for us, especially in the first two sectors, which meant it was challenging to put together the perfect lap.

"I tried everything out there today to get a better result but couldn’t make it. Nonetheless, the weekend is not over and we will fight hard all the way to the chequered flag," he concluded.

Laurent Mekies, Ferrari's Racing Director summed up his team's qualifying, he said: "It was a tight qualifying today. This season, we’ve got used to being higher up the grid, but today we had to settle for 5th and 7th.

"It’s probably fair to say that we were not totally satisfied with the behaviour of our cars on this track, and that there are perhaps a few things we still need to crack around here to be more competitive.

"That being said, we think the potential is there," Mekies insisted. "The gaps were relatively small and at some stage in Q2 it felt like we could be in the fight for better positions, but as it turned out we will start behind our competitors tomorrow.

"It’s a long and tough race here," he went on. "We have seen many cars struggling more than usual with a lot of sliding and it could be a race full of surprises with hopefully some opportunities for us to bring home plenty of points.

"We focus tonight on trying to understand how to extract a bit more from the package we have here, and we will try our best to be in the fight tomorrow," the Frenchman concluded.