Sainz stays with the positive after leading Free Practice 1 and being third in Free Practice 2. The accident that caused a red flag at the end of the afternoon session qualifies it as a “calculation error” that will not detract from confidence for qualifying: “It was a small accident, I touched the inside at turn 16 and it is usual in Monaco. A pity because it gives more work to the mechanics. But I’ve had confidence and good laps from the start, it doesn’t affect”.
“It has been a very good day for us. The car has been going well from the first moment, with confidence and good laps. Every time I’ve been out on the track I was going fast. A shame about the last touch with the wall at the end of FP2, but it shouldn’t affect my confidence. Unfortunately I give the poor mechanics a bit more work tonight. But It was a miscalculation, not an error that undermined my confidence”, summarizes on Ferrari Friday.
As for fighting for pole position, which can later translate into victory: “We are on a suitable track to try it. Red Bull is faster, they are still leaders, but we are closer than any other weekend, we can try, although we know it will be difficult”.
Second of the day was Leclerc, I found it more difficult to extract the maximum from the SF23: “It was a bit of a difficult day because the car was not doing exactly what was expected. We need to take a look at my car set-up and work to make sure I have the right feeling on Saturday. Here everything is qualifying, we don’t do race batches and we only prepare to qualify in the best possible way”, sums up the local driver.
Their numbers in Monaco
Charles has some private records in Monaco: two consecutive pole positions, 2021 and 2022, but he has never finished on the podium. In the first case, he did not start the race because his accident in Q3 (with which he tied pole position precisely) caused damage to the Ferrari that was not repaired correctly. Last year, the previous deluge conditioned the race and the wall of the Italians put the rest with a lousy strategy that relegated him to fourth position. Carlos was second in both editions, although in the last one he deserved a victory that Checo Pérez took, supported by the great strategy of Red Bull. It is one of those circuits in which the Spanish has always been competitive, like Barcelona or Austin. To improve second place, he only needs to win.