Sakhir GP: Post-Qualifying comments from Vettel, Leclerc and Binotto

Ferrari had a mixed results during Saturday’s qualifying at Sakhir Grand Prix. Two Ferrari’s will start from P4 & P13 on the grid for Sunday’s race at Bahrain International Circuit’s Outer Track.

Charles Leclerc produced an almost perfect lap in the final shoot-out for the top ten grid places, to set the fourth fastest time to start on the second row of the grid, equaling his best qualifying performance from three other races so far in the season, Great Britain, Eifel and Portugal.

Sebastian Vettel was unable to make the cut out of Q2 and will start from 13th on the grid, The German was forced use Old Friday practice Engine for Saturday qualifying and Sunday’s race as a precautionary measure, after team identified issues with his Power Unit in the Final Practice session before qualifying.

Vettel feels middle sector cost him big in the final flying lap, “I just wasn’t fast enough. I actually had a good feeling, but I don’t know what went wrong. I lost a lot of time in the middle sector. The other sectors were actually okay”.

The German also felt lack of tow also a factor to miss out Q3, “I had no one in front of me on the second attempt. That was a bit wasted. We should have been a little smarter with the track position. Glad that we were able to go out after the engine change. The boys did well, but of course it’s not ideal”.

Charles Leclerc (P4 on the grid)

“I am so happy with fourth place. We took a chance by going out at the beginning of the session in Q3. We could have waited, but because of the risk of traffic and because I had a clear idea of what to do, I chose to go out immediately and I managed to put together a good lap. After that, I got out of the car because I had no more new tyres and I knew that realistically I could not beat the time I’d just set.

Going into the race, I have to say it’s a bit of a step into the unknown, having lost most of FP2’s track time which means I haven’t done a race simulation. All the same, I think I got good pace today and I hope that will be the case in the race also. I don’t think we have the third fastest car here, but I plan to make the most of my start position in this race.”

Sebastian Vettel (P13 on the grid)

“I generally had a good feeling driving the car today so I don’t really know what went wrong. Maybe on the straights I was losing a bit as well as in the middle sector. I was confident after Q1 but then we didn’t make it. I don’t know if this could be related to the power unit change. For sure my mechanics did everything well as the car was fine to drive.

Taking care of the tyres will be difficult tomorrow but it could be the key to a good race. We will have a free choice of tyre for the start and we will see what we can do.” 

Mattia Binotto, Team Principal

“Charles produced a brilliant lap to equal his best qualifying performances of the season. Fourth place was down to his amazing talent, all the more extraordinary considering he missed almost all of the second free practice session. It’s just a bit of shame that he couldn’t make the cut out of Q2 on the Mediums, as this would have put him in a better position for the race, but he tried his very best. Sebastian missed some track time at the end of FP3 with a technical problem and he felt much more comfortable with the car than yesterday, but he couldn’t make the cut out of Q2 in a session where just hundredths of a second could see you gain or lose places. The team at the track should be congratulated on doing a great job in changing Seb’s PU very quickly as a precautionary move after FP3 and also for the way they prepared for and executed what was a very complex qualifying session. As usual, in the race, we will try and bring home as many points as possible. It won’t be easy as everyone is very evenly matched but if we do everything perfectly we could do something worthwhile.”