F1 Las Vegas Ferrari, Vasseur: “Leclerc and Sainz are great. Verstappen? We’re close”

“Both Leclerc and Sainz had a very good race, they are in really good shape.” Frederic Vasseur thus praised his drivers after the Las Vegas GP, which Ferrari finished in 2nd and 6th place, recovering many points in the standings from Mercedes, rival for 2nd place in the Constructors’ World Championship. “Leclerc drove an exceptional race, overtaking Red Bull three times – the team principal immediately underlined – it’s a shame about second place because the objective was victory, but the race was great overall, also for sixth place Sainz started twelfth. We fought with the Red Bull until the last corner, something we haven’t seen often. Verstappen unattainable? They’re dominating, but we’re not that far from catching him.”

regret

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Some regret remains for the Safety Car which allowed Red Bull to stop to fit fresher tires than Charles: “The Safety Car was the worst scenario for us – he said – even though the drivers did very well and I must say that they are in good form. We have to think about the next race, Mercedes is only four points away and I’m sure we can catch them in the constructors’ standings. On a general level – he concluded – a fun, hard-fought race with great overtaking, one of the most beautiful of the season, we should always maintain this standard of spectacularity”.

leclerc speaks

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Leclerc is convinced that without the Safety Car he would have had a better chance: “Today we were certainly the fastest on the track, in terms of race pace it was the best Ferrari of the year – said the Monegasque – the Safety Car took away a victory from us which for I was certain. Happy for the overtaking on the last lap, but fighting with those very cold tires was really difficult. In this respect we struggled, not managing to put the tires in the right temperature for the end of the race. As a team we done our best, we couldn’t achieve more than the events that occurred throughout the race. Today, from a race pace perspective, it was the best Ferrari of the season.”

sainz speaks

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Carlos Sainz, however, is disappointed by the penalty: “Today the car could have fought for the victory, I take home six important points for the constructors’ classification – he said – a difficult race, starting in the middle of the group I didn’t have much grip and the tires often blocked also due to the dirty track. We recovered from last position to sixth, but I’m not very happy because today the car had the pace to fight for the victory. We still saved six very important points for the team, with four of these that separate us from the Mercedes with whom we will fight in Abu Dhabi, I want to beat them.”