Charles Leclerc moves on from Carlos Sainz 'fight' and predicts Ferrari can match Max Verstappen pace at Austrian GP
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Published 09/07/2022 at 16:25 GMT
Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz spent most of Saturday's Austrian Grand Prix Sprint tussling with one another, allowing Red Bull's Max Verstappen to win the race and extend his lead, but that has not stopped Leclerc from predicting a strong challenge at Sunday's full Grand Prix event.
Charles Leclerc
Image credit: Getty Images
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc believes his ‘small fight’ with Carlos Sainz did not stop him showing the pace needed to beat Max Verstappen tomorrow.
Leclerc took seven points from second position in Saturday’s Sprint race at the Austrian Grand Prix, with Carlos Sainz’s third earning six.
World champion Verstappen was victorious, taking the maximum eight points and stretching his drivers’ championship lead to 38 over nearest rival, Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
The two Ferraris were focused on battling one another rather than working in tandem to press Verstappen, but speaking to Sky Sports, the Monegasque is still looking to push the Dutchman hard.
"It was tricky,” he said. “Obviously the first part was all about managing but Max was very quick and was pushing quite a lot at the beginning. I was just trying to control my tyres to attack at the end.”
"I had a small fight with Carlos and towards the end I started to push. I was gaining a little bit, but it was very close overall. Tomorrow is the race and hopefully we can have as good a start as today and put a bit more pressure on Max."
Teammate Sainz also observed Ferrari appeared to be able to match the Sprint winner.
He said: "I had a good start and then a couple of fights with Max into Turn Three and then Charles into Turn Three again later in the race. It was good fun, like it should be, good racing.
"I probably overheated the tyres a little bit running behind Charles and I had to back off to recover them and finish the race.
"We need to improve the pace because Max looked very strong at the beginning. Then little by little it looked like we were starting to match him. Tomorrow is a longer race and anything can happen. The important thing is we are both in the fight and we will try our best to beat Max."
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