Azerbaijan GP : Post-race comments from Leclerc and Sainz

After taking surprise pole on Saturday, Charles Leclerc and Ferrari failed to convert the pole into at least podium. Given that main title rivals Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen both ended up not scoring any points, Ferrari should have capitalized the opportunities thrown by the race.

Charles Leclerc finished the race in P4 after starting from Pole position, his team mate Carlos Sainz comes home in P8 after making an error. In Friday’s free practice it was evident the two teams fighting for the championship had a clearly quicker pace than Ferrari, but Sebastian Vettel & Aston Martin, Pierre Gasly & AlphaTauri drove an exceptional race to move ahead of Ferrari in the final classification.

Though Ferrari’s single lap pace looks on par with front runners, the team needs to focus more on race pace. But on the positive side Ferrari moves to Third place in Constructor’s championship with 94 total point at the conclusion of 6 races, 2 point clear of fourth placed Mclaren team(92 points).

Leclerc drops from P4 to P5 in the drivers championship standings with 52 total points, While Spaniard Carlos Sainz holds on to his seventh place with 42 points.

Charles Leclerc (P4)

“Before arriving in Baku, P4 was more or less where we could expect to finish the race. The first surprise of the weekend was our pole position. A second surprise was that some of our competitors in the midfield were extremely quick today. Despite starting at the front, we knew we could well be overtaken by the cars of the two front running teams, which is what happened.

After the first stop, I tried to do the best job possible. I had a lockup after the restart following the first safety car. Continuing with two flat spots was the most difficult part of the race. I really thought I wouldn’t make it to the end. Then we had the red flag, and I thought about the podium. But unfortunately, we didn’t’ make it. Seb did an incredible job – congratulations to him. The same goes for Pierre, it was a hard fight with him at the end! We will keep working and pushing in the right direction.”

Carlos Sainz (P8)

“Not the race I was hoping for today. I didn’t have the same feeling with the car that I had had all weekend. Every time I was on cold tyres – at both starts, at the restart and after the pit stop – I struggled a lot with front locking and with the brakes. That led to a costly mistake which compromised my whole race. 

In the end, I managed to get back in the points but I’m not happy with the result. We need to understand the reasons behind those issues and try to improve for the upcoming races. We’ve got some time now to go to Maranello and work on it, so I’m sure we’ll come back stronger in France.”

Matteo Binotto, Team Principal

“It was a difficult race that didn’t live up to our expectations, given how qualifying went yesterday. We know that, in order to reach our goals, we not only have to improve our car, we must also do everything perfectly in every area and that wasn’t the case today. 

On the plus side this weekend, we took our second pole position of the season and we have moved up to third in the Constructors’ classification. The gap to those behind is small and definitely smaller than it could have been. However, we have to move on from this and see it as further motivation to improve in every aspect of our work.”