Sebastian Vettel failed to make it past the first qualifying round and was only able to take a poor 17th place, while teammate Charles Leclerc made it to the second qualifying round but was only able to take 13th place on the grid ahead of the race on Sunday.
Ferrari knew they would struggle to get up to speed going into the Italian Grand Prix this weekend, but even they couldn’t have predicted things would turn out this bad.
Leclerc is in fifth place in the drivers’ championship race with 45 points, 112 points behind leader Lewis Hamilton. Things are even worse for Vettel, the four-time world champion, who has only 16 points and is in 13th place.
In the rankings of builders, Ferrari is in 5th place and 203 points behind the leader Mercedes.
It is also memorable for Ferrari that its fervent supporters – known as ‘tifosi’ – were not present to witness the disastrous performance, with races still going on behind the scenes. closed door.
“Ultimately, we expect it to be a bit over the weekend,” a frustrated Leclerc told Sky Sports. “We know Spa [last weekend] and these are the two worst songs for us. It’s like this… it’s hard.
“Right now, it’s like this and I need to get the maximum out of the car. It hurts more at home. This is the reality for us at the moment. We need to work,” Leclerc said.
At the top of the standings, Mercedes added 1-2 more as Lewis Hamilton clinched his eighth pole at the Italian Grand Prix, while teammate Valtteri Bottas narrowly lost a tenth of a second to finish second on the grid.
“It was a great team performance,” Hamilton told Sky Sports. “It wasn’t the easiest thing, you saw how close it was between us. It needed a clean round and I had both.
“Valtteri was very strong and kept pushing, I was a little nervous getting through the final zone. In the years I’ve been here, I’ve had times when we’ve dropped more force and more grip, [but] speed through Lesmos [corner] how wonderful. Trying to find the right balance has not been easy, Hamilton said.
McLaren’s Carlos Sainz was said to have put in the day’s performance to claim 3rd place for his best-ever grid position, while Racing Point driver Sergio Perez’s 4th place his best position balance ever.
Top 10
- 1. Hamilton
- 2. Bottas
- 3. Sainz
- 4. Perez
- 5. Verstappen
- 6. Norris
- 7. Ricciardo
- 8. Stroll
- 9. Albon
- 10. Temperament
