Tag: Carlos Sainz

Sainz beats Verstappen to win home pole for Ferrari

Carlos Sainz put a Ferrari on pole position at the Italian Grand Prix after edging out Max Verstappen for the top spot in a thrilling qualifying hour in Monza. The Scuderia looked down for the count in the earlier qualifying segments, when revised …

Carlos Sainz put a Ferrari on pole position at the Italian Grand Prix after edging out Max Verstappen for the top spot in a thrilling qualifying hour in Monza.

The Scuderia looked down for the count in the earlier qualifying segments, when revised rules mandated drivers use the hard and medium tires on the way to Q3, but the margins closed to practically nothing once the softs broke cover, and the tight picture was resumed.

Ferrari gave the packed grandstands hope after the first runs, with Sainz leading Charles Leclerc for a provisional front-row lockout with Verstappen in third, but the trio was split by just 0.099s — and Verstappen had had his best lap compromised by running marginally wide and onto the gravel exiting the Roggia chicane.

Leclerc led Verstappen and Sainz out of pit lane for the final runs, and again there was little to pick between them. Leclerc was fastest in the first sector to move to top spot, while Verstappen snatched P1 for himself with a purple final split.

But it was Sainz with an unbeatable middle sector who sealed the deal, seizing pole by 0.013s ahead of Verstappen and 0.067s from his teammate to send Ferrari’s home fans into raptures.

“It’s been such an intense qualifying,” Sainz said. “We all three went for it. We were very, very on the limit.

“The last lap I knew I had some lap time to come in Ascari and Parabolica, and I went for it, and it went well. I really pushed hard on that last lap.”

But the Spaniard was more cautious about promising a conversion from pole to victory.

“Tomorrow I’m going to give it everything to hold onto that P1,” he said. “A good start, a good first stint, and see if we can battle Max. Normally in the long runs he’s quicker, but I’m going to give it all.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Verstappen appeared completely unperturbed at missing out on the pole. Red Bull Racing’s race pace looked strong even from the limited practice running on Friday, and the Dutchman will have a good chance of winning a record-breaking 10th consecutive race with a good launch from the inside of the front row.

“I think we made some good improvements compared to yesterday,” he said. “In qualifying you could see every qualifying session was tight, so I’m happy to be second today.

“Of course tomorrow we’ll try to win the race. Normally we have the quicker race car.”

Leclerc completed an admirable recovery from an anonymous practice campaign to come close to topping qualifying, with the Monegasque noting that he was the only one of the top three without a slipstream for his final flying lap.

“On my side I’m a bit disappointed,” he said. “I obviously wanted to be first, but seeing Carlos is P1 is great for Ferrari. He’s done an incredible job all weekend.”

George Russell headed the next group of cars in fourth, but the Briton was 0.377s off the pace, with Mercedes never in contention for the front row.

Sergio Perez was a lackluster 0.394s off pole and will start fifth, less than 0.1s ahead of Williams driver Alex Albon in a predictably impressive drive to sixth on the grid.

McLaren teammates Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were seventh and ninth to sandwich a downcast Lewis Hamilton in eighth, the Briton complaining about a lack of grip throughout qualifying.

Fernando Alonso completed the top 10 for Aston Martin in a surprisingly uncompetitive showing 1.1s off the pace.

AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda came within 0.013s of a spot in top 10 and will start 11th ahead of temporary teammate Liam Lawson, who impressively was just 0.164s shy of the Japanese driver.

Nico Hulkenberg qualified 13th for Haas ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and a frustrated Logan Sargeant, whose medium-tire laps were slower than his best time on the hards from Q1.

Zhou Guanyu will start 16th, the Chinese driver the first of those knocked out of Q1 on the hard tire.

Alpine teammates Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon never looked likely to escape the bottom five once qualifying got underway, and the pair ended up closely matched in 17th and 18th, Ocon having taken a lightly damaging trip through the gravel at Ascari partway through the session.

Kevin Magnussen qualified ninth for Haas ahead of an underwhelming Lance Stroll, who was more than 0.2s off the back of the pack in his Aston Martin.

Sainz back on top in final Italy practice

Carlos Sainz pipped Max Verstappen to top spot of final practice at the Italian Grand Prix to set up an intriguing qualifying session in Monza. The third practice hour was mostly sedate, with teams preserving what ties they have left under Pirelli’s …

Carlos Sainz pipped Max Verstappen to top spot of final practice at the Italian Grand Prix to set up an intriguing qualifying session in Monza.

The third practice hour was mostly sedate, with teams preserving what ties they have left under Pirelli’s reduced allocation rules, but the session came alive in the final quarter with a flurry of qualifying simulation laps.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Verstappen rocketed to top spot first, but Sainz usurped him atop the order shortly afterwards with a best time of 1m 20.912s, pipping the Dutchman by only 0.086s.

Sainz’s advantage was largely accumulated in the flat-out first sector, while Verstappen was at an advantage in the final split, comprising Ascari and Parabolica.

Lewis Hamilton made Mercedes the next best team, but the Briton was mystified by the 0.541-second gap to the front, with his deficit spread around the lap.

Charles Leclerc abandoned his first flying lap on softs after running wide exiting the second Lesmo and bottoming out on the curbs. He returned to pit lane for checks and was able to rejoin the session, but by then the best of his tires were spent, leaving him fourth and 0.574s slower than his teammate.

He fared better than the sister Red Bull car, in which Sergio Perez was unable to set a flying lap on new rubber at all after his team discovered an oil leak in the back of his RB19 partway through the session. It couldn’t be repaired before the end of the hour, leaving him 10th.

Fernando Alonso was fifth for Aston Martin ahead of George Russell and Haas teammates Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg and the omnipresent Williams of Alex Albon.

Lance Stroll turned his first timed lap of the entire weekend on his way to 11th place. The Canadian gave up his car to reserve driver Felipe Drugovich in FP1 and then lost all of the second session to a fuel system problem, leaving him down on track time.

He completed 31 laps in the final practice session, the most of any driver, to make up for lost time.

Liam Lawson beat AlphaTauri teammate Yuki Tsunoda to 12th by just 0.001s.

Oscar Piastri put in a messy session for 14th, including an off-track excursion at the Roggia chicane on an out lap and then a collision with Sainz in a botched overtaking attempt at Rettifilo, for which the stewards opened a post-session inquiry.

Logan Sargeant ended the day 15th ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Lando Norris, Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu and Pierre Gasly.

Sainz leads second Italian GP practice after Perez crashes

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz edged McLaren’s Lando Norris to top spot of second practice at the Italian Grand Prix after Sergio Perez crashed out of the session with 10 minutes remaining. Perez was deep into a long run on medium tires when he understeered …

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz edged McLaren’s Lando Norris to top spot of second practice at the Italian Grand Prix after Sergio Perez crashed out of the session with 10 minutes remaining.

Perez was deep into a long run on medium tires when he understeered through Parabolica and dipped his left wheels into the gravel. The stones sucked the car into the run-off area, where the Mexican lost control and was helpless but to brace for contact with he barrier at the far end of the gravel trap, near the exit of the corner.

He made rear-end contact with the barrier, and the speed of his trip through the gravel will likely have caused floor damage too.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Perez had been third quickest and 0.185s off top spot at the time of the crash, which caused a five-minute red flag near the end of the hour. Only Norris got between him and Sainz, the Briton a tiny 0.019s adrift. McLaren’s good day was completed by Oscar Piastri, who was fourth fastest and only 0.005s slower than Perez.

Max Verstappen was a frustrated fifth at the end of the qualifying simulation laps. The Dutchman was 0.276s slower than Sainz but found himself stuck in a group of slow-moving cars exiting the second Lesmo, compromising his first soft-tire run.

He was denied a second attempt by the Red Bull Racing pit wall despite protests to go again, with his engineer preferring instead to focus on longer stints with the medium tire — although his race simulation was interrupted by teammate Perez’s crash.

Compounding Verstappen’s difficult afternoon was a fine for speeding in the pit lane, albeit payable by his team.

Charles Leclerc ended the day sixth in the second Ferrari ahead of Williams driver Alex Albon and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.

George Russell again led the way for Mercedes, but the Briton was 0.821s off the pace in ninth, albeit more competitive than teammate Lewis Hamilton, who 0.6s further back in 17th.

The two Mercedes drivers appeared to be experimenting with different downforce setups at the start of the session, with Hamilton noting that his configuration was too far down on straight-line speed to be competitive. His engineer said changing setup would absorb the bulk of the hour, so he made do with ad hoc tweaks for the remainder of the session.

Haas teammates Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen were 11th and 12th ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas in a smooth session for the Finn.

Alpine duo Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were 13th and 15th and split by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda.

Logan Sargeant was 16th ahead of Hamilton, Liam Lawson and Zhou Guanyu at the back of the pack.

Lance Stroll was classified 10th without a time after suffering a suspected fuel system issue on the run down to Ascari, forcing him to pull to the side of the road and triggering a brief red flag. The technical problem leaves the Canadian without any meaningful running ahead of qualifying day, having given up his FP1 session for reserve driver Felipe Drugovich.

Don’t complain if F1 doesn’t run in Spa rain – Leclerc

Charles Leclerc says nobody should complain if Formula 1 puts safety first and does not run at times during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend due to the weather. Persistent rain throughout Thursday is a precursor to further threats on both Friday and …

Charles Leclerc says nobody should complain if Formula 1 puts safety first and does not run at times during the Belgian Grand Prix weekend due to the weather.

Persistent rain throughout Thursday is a precursor to further threats on both Friday and Saturday, with three competitive sessions set to take place as part of the sprint weekend. Two years on from the called-off event at Spa-Francorchamps where just two laps behind the safety car were completed, Leclerc says the safety concerns with the venue should make drivers and fans understanding if tough decisions need to be made again.

“I think there are some changes that could make a difference,” Leclerc said. “First of all, the walls on the straight after Eau Rouge, we should have a bit more space on the left and right. If you lose control of the car, the way it is done at the moment you are bouncing on the walls and you have a very high chance of finding yourself in the way. I think this is probably a change we should consider in the future.

“Then to change the layout of Eau Rouge, for example, we find ourselves (at other times) in the season in those particular conditions — being fast in a straight — we have that everywhere and that is going to be difficult to do anything else other than that. You can always change the layout, but I don’t think it is fair to say this is what should be done.

“Then the two biggest problems after that is visibility. Visibility is really difficult to put into words … apart from saying we are seeing nothing – we are not exaggerating when we say we don’t see anything, we really don’t see anything when it’s raining.

“This is a really big problem for Formula 1, for motorsport in general. Any single-seaters, we have quite a bit of downforce and there is quite a lot of spray and then this causes quite a lot of incidents because we cannot react to what is in front. Easy to say that, much more difficult to find a solution, but I know that the FIA is on it and trying to do the best on that.

“Then the last thing is, when is it safe to start a race? This is another topic for the FIA to look closely, especially on a weekend like this where it seems we will have quite a lot of rain throughout, to not feel the pressure of starting a race just because we didn’t have any running.

“We could be in that situation this weekend. It’s obvious to say, but safety should come first and this needs to be the priority. People, and first of all us drivers, shouldn’t complain if we don’t have any laps because it is not safe to do so, with everything that has happened.”

The bad weather on his arrival at Spa had Leclerc wondering whether it would be possible to run the full Belgian GP weekend as scheduled. Michael Potts/Motorsport Images

Leclerc’s comments were backed up by his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz, who believes there’s a limit to what conditions the drivers should be asked to race in.

“If I can see in the car, then of course I will recommend to the race director and make sure we try and run,” Sainz said. “But at the same time, if you cannot see, it’s leaving everything down to luck and fate. I think we’ve learned our lessons recently and I think we need to not fall too much into the pressure of having to run just because we need to put on a show and because it’s the right thing for the sport, if the conditions are not safe enough.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

However, Sainz says he doesn’t feel Spa itself is unsafe as a venue, with only the weather creating scenarios that need addressing, following the death of Dilano van T’Hoff in a Formula Regional race at Spa earlier this month.

“I will go out there, whatever the conditions are,” said Sainz. “But obviously as drivers we always need to give guidance to the FIA if we can actually see in case of an accident or anything in front of us, how many meters ahead we can see. All 20 drivers, we are asked for our opinion and I will give my opinion at the time.

“My number one priority will always be safety, but also as soon as everything is ready, I will be the first one screaming to run at this beautiful track. Because I love driving it in the dry, but I also love driving it in the wet. I actually think it’s more fun to drive in the wet than in the dry, especially those corners.

“I might differ a bit here. I don’t think the track lacks any safety attributes. I think the changes they’ve done over the years have made the truck a lot safer. I think it’s unfortunate what happened with Anthoine (Hubert, who was fatally injured in a crash during a Formula 2 race in 2019), but it’s more due to the conditions.

“What happened last time, a month ago here… that could happen in any category, in any racetrack in the world, when there’s no visibility and a car spins in the middle of a straight — we all cannot see (anything). It’s down to luck. This is why before green-flagging a session, before green-flagging a restart of the race where the cars are so closely bunched up, you need to be really sure that it’s not down to luck whether we’re going to see an accident or not.”

Verstappen stays ahead but Ferrari closes gap in second British GP practice

Max Verstappen doubled down on his Friday practice advantage with another session-topping time in FP2 for the British Grand Prix. Verstappen lowered his FP1 benchmark by more than half a second to string together his best time of 1m28.078s. But his …

Max Verstappen doubled down on his Friday practice advantage with another session-topping time in FP2 for the British Grand Prix.

Verstappen lowered his FP1 benchmark by more than half a second to string together his best time of 1m28.078s. But his advantage over the field was much reduced compared to the earlier session, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz lapping just 0.022s slower and pinching the fastest time in the final sector.

It was a promising result for the cautiously optimistic Italian team after applying a raft of upgrades to the car in recent rounds.

The Spaniard was the lone Ferrari to take part in second practice after teammate Charles Leclerc’s SF-23 developed an electrical problem that prevented him from leaving his garage. It was a serious blow to the Monegasque, particularly given the elevated risk of rain on Saturday. He had been the fractionally faster Ferrari in FP1.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Alex Albon’s sizzling Friday form continued with another third-fastest time just 0.218s adrift in his low-drag Williams machine. The Thai driver never slipped more than 0.09s to Verstappen in any sector, and he was within 0.05s of Verstappen in the final split, which starts at the Hangar straight.

His teammate, Logan Sargeant, was similarly impressive to put his Williams fifth, although the American rookie was more than 0.4s slower.

The Williams duo sandwiched Sergio Perez into fourth in the second Red Bull Racing machine, the Mexican 0.264s slower than his teammate.

Lance Stroll slogged his way to sixth for Aston Martin, suffering a wing mirror failure along the way before having one of his fingers painfully struck by an errant stone kicked up from one of the gravel traps.

Nico Hulkenberg was a strong seventh for Haas ahead of Pierre Gasly and an impressive Oscar Piastri. Fernando Alonso completed the top 10 after having debris cleared from his front-left brake duct early in the hour.

Zhou Guanyu made a mid-session steering wheel change on his way to 11th ahead of George Russell in the first of the wayward Mercedes cars.

Russell was 1.1s off the pace in a car he described as “sliding all over the track” regardless of the tire compound. The final part of his hour was occupied by undertaking more aerodynamic testing on the team’s new front wing.

Teammate Lewis Hamilton fared worse down in 15th, albeit only 0.045s further back, the older Briton similarly reporting a lack of grip. Esteban Ocon and Lando Norris split the Mercedes cars in 13th and 14th respectively.

Valtteri Bottas was 16th ahead of Kevin Magnussen and AlphaTauri teammates Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries, the latter having suffered a right-front puncture on his way back to pit lane at the end of the session.

Sainz and Hamilton among those hit with post-race penalties

Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton have both been demoted as part of an updated race result due to track limit infringements in the Austrian Grand Prix. Aston Martin protested the race result claiming the article in the Sporting Regulations relating to …

Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton have both been demoted as part of an updated race result due to track limit infringements in the Austrian Grand Prix.

Aston Martin protested the race result claiming the article in the Sporting Regulations relating to track limits was not enforced properly, but the FIA had already started reviewing a number of potential infringements that had been missed during the race. That meant an official race result was delayed in being published while they were worked through and penalties applied.

The Aston Martin protest was upheld as a formality with that work ongoing, and the stewards found there were 83 cases of lap times needing deleting, leading to multiple penalties.

Working on the basis that a fourth infringement earned a five-second time penalty and a fifth a 10-second penalty — before a “reset” that meant another four infringements were required for the next five-second penalty — Sainz was handed a 10-second penalty that drops him from fourth to sixth place behind Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton also gets a 10-second penalty and loses a spot to teammate George Russell to finish eighth, while Pierre Gasly is the other driver hurt in the points, losing 10 seconds to fall to 10th behind Lance Stroll.

There was also a 10-second time penalty for Alex Albon who had originally finished 11th, 30 seconds for Esteban Ocon from 12th, 10 seconds for Logan Sargeant in 13th as well as 15 seconds for Nyck de Vries and 10 for Yuki Tsunoda to leave the AlphaTauris 17th and 19th respectively.

“The stewards very strongly recommend that a solution be found to the track limits situation at this circuit,” the decision added.

The FIA had already issued an earlier statement reiterating its request from previous years to have gravel traps installed at the corners in question to avoid repeats.

“Regarding the track limits infringements at the 2023 FIA Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, we note that due to the specifics of the circuit layout and the propensity of many drivers to repeatedly drive outside of the boundaries of the track, an unprecedented situation arose which resulted in all potential infringements not being able to be reviewed during the race,” an FIA spokesperson said.

“Prior to the submission of a protest against the result, we had already begun a full review of the track limits infringements … During the Grand Prix, race control was tasked with reviewing well over 1200 instances where a car was reported as potentially leaving the track.

“In order to address the issue for future events we will renew our recommendation to the circuit to add a gravel trap at the exit of Turns 9 and 10. We note that while this is not a straightforward solution in relation to other series that race here, it has proved to be very effective at other corners and circuits with similar issues.”

Earlier on Sunday, the FIA also dismissed a petition to the right of review from McLaren looking to overturn a penalty against Lando Norris in Canada, judging there was no significant and relevant new element to deliberate over.

Ferrari drivers pleased to be closer than expected to Red Bull

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz admit they are closer to Max Verstappen than they expected after qualifying in the top three for the Austrian Grand Prix. Verstappen secured his fourth pole position in a row at the Red Bull Ring but after setting …

Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz admit they are closer to Max Verstappen than they expected after qualifying in the top three for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Verstappen secured his fourth pole position in a row at the Red Bull Ring but after setting down an impressive benchmark with a 1m04.391s on his final run, he saw Leclerc fall just 0.048s short a few moments later. Although the Monegasque has been on pole position in Azerbaijan earlier this year, he says he hadn’t felt a repeat battle was on the cards prior to Friday’s running.

“I managed to put everything that I wanted in the last lap of Q3,” Leclerc said. “Very close to Max — not enough today but overall I don’t think we expected to be so close to the Red Bull. So it’s a good step forward.

“I would like to thank all the guys back at the factory — it’s only qualifying but the work they’ve done in the last two or three weeks in order to bring the package earlier than it was planned was really, really impressive and that helped us to have a good performance today. Now we need to confirm that in the (sprint) race tomorrow and Sunday.

“There’s always something more (left out there). Turn 3 was not ideal, Turn 1 there were quite a few snaps — we tried to add a bit more front wing for the last run in Q3 and it was probably a tiny bit too much, but at the end of the day it’s part of the game. Very, very close to pole position, which is a good sign, but we all know that our weakness is the race, so we are waiting for the race to try and see if we confirm the positive signs that we’ve seen in Montreal.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Despite the strong one-lap performance, Leclerc says he’s more interested in learning more about the race pace of the Ferrari after an upgrade package that was introduced in Austria.

“All the effort is made to make our race pace better. So it is great to be on the front row, it is great to be close again to pole position — or at least to be fighting for it — but on the other hand we still need to wait because the points are scored on Sunday and since the beginning of the season that’s where the struggles are for us.”

Sainz was within 0.2s in third place during Friday’s qualifying for Sunday’s race, and he is hopeful of joining in a double podium for the team on Sunday but says the possibility of rain forecast for the sprint might impact the chances of repeating the performance on Saturday.

“It was good, I think we had a strong qualifying as a team and definitely felt like we made some progress recently,” Sainz said. “I think we still have a lot of the weekend ahead of us. At least for today we put ourselves in a good position for Sunday to try and get a podium with both cars. I think tomorrow will be a different day with different forecast, different track conditions, so it could also be a very different picture and we just need to stay focused.

“Obviously we are in parc ferme so it’s not like we can improve the car a lot from today to tomorrow, but we will look into the smallest details and the smallest things to see if we can pick up a tenth or two… but I think the conditions tomorrow are going to be very, very different.”

Ferrari weaknesses on show in Spain

Carlos Sainz says Ferrari’s weaknesses came to the fore in the Spanish Grand Prix as he was unable to push to fight with the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers. The Spaniard started his home race from second on the grid and attacked Max Verstappen into …

Carlos Sainz says Ferrari’s weaknesses came to the fore in the Spanish Grand Prix as he was unable to push to fight with the Mercedes and Red Bull drivers.

The Spaniard started his home race from second on the grid and attacked Max Verstappen into Turn 1 but then faded as the race progressed, losing out to both Mercedes cars and then Sergio Perez late on. After his encouraging qualifying, Sainz says he knew what Ferrari’s limitations were going to be and he had to focus solely on looking after his tires.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

“I knew he was on a medium tire so maybe I had a bit more grip but he defended well, ran me wide and did what he had to do,” Verstappen said. “I could have taken the escape road, decided to stay legal in a way, let’s say. I had to go for it.

“Honestly I just spent the whole race managing tires because we know we are very hard on them. With this high deg circuit I just couldn’t push, we know it’s a weakness of our car and coming to a high deg circuit, two-stop race we were just managing the whole way, trying to make it to the target laps of the stint and still falling short in a few of them.

“So yeah the weaknesses of the car are coming alive at a circuit like this, with the high speed corners and how hard we are on tires. But also shows (in qualifying) we must have done a pretty good lap, I think (the race) was again a bit back to where the car is in race pace. Probably this sort of track is not great for us.”

Despite slipping to fifth in the race, Sainz was less concerned about the struggles he was facing but had his interest caught by Mercedes’ step forward.

“The biggest surprise was how close Mercedes was in this race. Our pace, we finished 45 seconds, it’s more or less where we finished in Miami where we finished in recent races. It’s just suddenly Mercedes has slotted in-between us and Red Bull and probably where Aston should have been, I don’t know what happened to Aston.”

Ferrari had some new parts in Spain that both drivers used during the race, but Sainz says there’s still more work to do to try and get more pace from the updated car.

“Last year we would have made it back to the top four, top five starting from pit lane. This year the field is tighter and it’s more difficult to make your way through. There’s work to do. Analysis to be done on this package. I trust that what we did is the right direction, now we need to start addressing our weaknesses with the bouncing, with the high-speed, and with this new package and direction hopefully we can start bringing performance.”

Sainz tops Alonso in first Monaco GP practice

Carlos Sainz edged Fernando Alonso to top spot in first practice at the Monaco Grand Prix as the Red Bull Racing drivers struggled for composure around the serpentine street track. With medium tires bolted on, Sainz and Alonso spent the final 15 …

Carlos Sainz edged Fernando Alonso to top spot in first practice at the Monaco Grand Prix as the Red Bull Racing drivers struggled for composure around the serpentine street track.

With medium tires bolted on, Sainz and Alonso spent the final 15 minutes trading fastest laps, gradually separating themselves from the chasing pack. But with around five minutes to go Sainz set a sizzling final time of 1m13.372s to put top spot beyond reach of the Aston Martin driver, the margin 0.338s.

Despite setting the quickest time in the first split, Alonso lost the opportunity to respond when Alex Albon put his Williams in the barriers at Sainte Devote, bringing out red flags with four minutes remaining.

The Thai driver carried too much speed into the first turn and slammed his Williams into the barrier, the left-rear wheel bearing the brunt of the impact.

The session wasn’t resumed, leaving Sainz with top spot.

Lewis Hamilton was third in his heavily upgraded Mercedes car, the Briton 0.663s off the pace.

Sergio Perez, winner of last year’s race in Monte Carlo, was the happier Red Bull Racing driver, and though the RB19 looked competitive in the first sector, it shipped time to Sainz in the final two splits.

Home driver Charles Leclerc was fifth and 0.721s slower than his teammate, while a troubled Max Verstappen was 0.872s adrift. The Dutchman was unhappy with the balance of his car throughout the session, and though changes were made in the middle of the hour, the RB19 still looked twitchy on his push laps. The team signaled more tweaks would be made out of session before FP2.

Lando Norris was the first driver more than a second adrift, leading Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and the crashed Albon to complete the top 10.

Valtteri Bottas was 11th ahead of Kevin Magnussen, Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly.

George Russell was far less happy with his updated Mercedes relative to third-placed teammate Hamilton. The younger Briton complained he couldn’t get temperature into his tires and lacked confidence in the turns, noting that he needed more rear downforce.

Nyck de Vries was 16th ahead of Oscar Piastri, Logan Sargeant — the American ended the session under investigation from the stewards for being sent out on track in an unsafe condition, apparently related to a loose wheel — and Zhou Guanyu.

Nico Hulkenberg was 20th with a punctured left-reartire after taking a bite out of the inside apex barrier exiting the tunnel into the chicane. His Haas was spun backwards, but he was able to limp back to the pits down a tire to retire from the session.

Leclerc sees silver lining in sprint defeat

Second place in the Azerbaijan sprint confirmed Ferrari’s post-qualifying prediction that it still doesn’t have the race pace to contend for victory despite having made a clear step forward, reckons Charles Leclerc. Leclerc held off a charging …

Second place in the Azerbaijan sprint confirmed Ferrari’s post-qualifying prediction that it still doesn’t have the race pace to contend for victory despite having made a clear step forward, reckons Charles Leclerc.

Leclerc held off a charging Sergio Perez at the start of the sprint, but his defense of the lead lasted only until DRS was enabled following an early safety car intervention.

The SF-23’s strong form through the technical middle sector wasn’t enough to generate a buffer, and the Mexican breezed past down the front straight and onwards to a comfortable victory.

“It confirmed a little bit what we thought,” Leclerc said. “Red Bull still has the upper hand in the race.

“As I said, if winning is not possible, we just need to take the maximum points, and today there wasn’t anything more. I’m happy with second place.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1388]

Leclerc also revealed that he was struggling with tire wear in the final 10 minutes or so despite the sprint lasting only 17 laps — a potentially foreboding sign ahead of the 51-lap grand prix.

“I didn’t fight Checo too much, because I just wanted to keep my tires. I knew that was our weak point,” he explained. “We were losing a little bit too much at the end with the degradation.

“I tried to stay in the DRS of Checo so he could pull me on the straights, but that wasn’t enough.”

But there were signs of silver lining in Leclerc’s defeat. The Monegasque was able to hold off Max Verstappen to prevent a Red Bull Racing one-two finish, and Ferrari was clearly the second-quickest car in race trim for the first time this season. Notwithstanding that Verstappen’s progress was slowed by damage picked up in a skirmish with George Russell on the first lap, that all amounted to a considerable and heartening improvement for Ferrari.

“We must not forget how far behind we were on race pace two races ago,” Leclerc said. “We did a step forward, but we are still not where we want to be. I’ll try to go for the win tomorrow even though the Red Bull seems slightly quicker. Let’s see what’s possible to improve tomorrow and we’ll give it all.”

The opportunities have been narrow for Carlos Sainz thus far at Baku. Andrew Ferraro/Motorsport Images

Leclerc’s relative optimism contrasted with a downcast teammate Carlos Sainz, who qualified and finished fifth after never looking in contention for a podium.

The Spaniard said his issues this weekend stemmed from a setup mistake made during the sole practice session on Friday, after which parc ferme conditions have prevented him from reverting to a friendlier configuration.

“I’m not surprised [I’m struggling],” he said. “When you can change nothing in the car and you cannot really experiment to get yourself comfortable, you’re in for a difficult weekend like I am at now.

“I’ve done some steps with my driving and changing a few things trying to adapt myself to the balance that I have, and to the track, but its proven to be a very challenging weekend.”

Sainz said he didn’t expect any improvement in the grand prix, which he’ll start from fourth on the grid after qualifying more than 0.8s down on pole-getter Leclerc.

“At this point, knowing what the pace is this weekend, it’s more of a damage-limitation weekend for me than anything else,” he said. “I’m really struggling out there with confidence, always feeling really, really on the limit of the rear axle. It’s not a nice feeling to have around Baku.

“I’m going to need more time after this weekend to really go deeper in the data, because now with this format you simply don’t have time. It’s impossible to take conclusions or to change anything that would help me get a bit more comfortable.”