Carlos Sainz, qualified fifth but who will start fourth due to the penalty inflicted on Piastri, comments on the timed session of the GP of Made in Italy and Emilia-Romagna 2024 in Imola
May 18, 2024
TOd a year after the forced stop due to the flood emergency that hit the region in 2023, the Formula 1 has finally returned to the heart of the motorvalley in Imola with the Grand Prix of Made in Italy and Emilia-Romagna. The weekend continues and the qualifying sessions have just concluded, determining the starting order of the race which will start at 3pm tomorrow. Starting from the first position will give Max Verstappen and he will be at his side Oscar Piastri. The Australian from McLaren, however, climbed to fifth position for the penalty due to an impediment against Kevin Magnussen. He will benefit from it Lando Norriswinner of the last event in Miami, who qualified third and could therefore start from the front row in second position. The two Scuderia Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, moved up to third and fourth position.
TOHere comes the first setback for the Maranello team in this first weekend at home. Galvanized by the enthusiasm of the tuffians present at theEnzo and Dino Ferrai racetrack in Imola to support the team, the Scuderia must deal with a sad reality. After dominating yesterday’s first free practice and doing well in this morning’s practice despite the missed opportunity at the end due to the red light caused by Perez, the two standard bearers of the Prancing Horse wasted an opportunity in qualifying. The timed sessions, their flagship last year, have become their Achilles’ heel and the pole position here at Imola clearly demonstrates this. Expectations were very high given the first package of updates brought to the SF-24 which demonstrated their goodness, but not yet that they were at the level of their direct rivals: McLaren and Red Bull.
Gthanks to the three-place penalty inflicted on Oscar Piastri, Charles Leclerc will start third while Carlos Sainz fourth. If the Scuderà Ferrari wants to win it will have to make a comeback, but the long runs tested in free practice give us hope. The target of the Madrilenian is that of at least get on the podium and he admits that his expectations, as he had already told us in the media session in which our Diletta Colombo took part, were not very high, despite the updates as this track is more McLaren style. “No, I honestly didn’t expect anything more. This is a McLaren or Red Bull circuit with medium-high speed corners and I knew our strength lies elsewhere” he commented to Sky Sport F1 at the end of qualifying.
“We are missing 2 or 3 tenths, which however are difficult to find with these regulations. We brought a package of updates but we know that there are pro-McLaren or pro-Ferrari circuits and for me this is a pro-McLaren track” added the Madrid native. “We have the problem that when the wind pushes us at the rear there are corners like 2 or 3 where our car struggles even in turn 7. This shows that we need to improve some details with the packages, but I think we can challenge for the podium tomorrow. For the victory we need something like in the other race, because it’s not easy to overtake here, but we can fight for the podium“ concluded Sainz.
