Charles Leclerc reckons that he could have joined Ferrari teammate and poleman Carlos Sainz on the front of the Italian Grand Prix had he benefitted from a slipstream in qualifying.
The Scuderia got it done on Saturday at Monza, much to the Tifosi's delight, thanks to a remarkable final push lap by Sainz that edged Red Bull's Max Verstappen by 0.013s.
Leclerc was 0.067s adrift but the Monegasque believes he could have overhauled Verstappen in the shootout with a proper tow down the straight on his final flyer.
But Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, the driver who was just ahead of Leclerc, was too far ahead for the slipstream to have an impact. One also noted that Verstappen enjoyed his run without a tow.
"My feeling can only be amazing with the Tifosi," said the Monegasque.
"Of course, on my side I'm a bit disappointed. I obviously wanted to be first but seeing that Carlos is P1 is great for Ferrari.
"He has done an incredible job all weekend. I've been struggling quite a bit more: FP1, FP2, FP3 and qualifying I managed to put everything together, so I was really happy.
"Unfortunately, in Q3 I didn't have a slipstream. That probably cost us one position at least, but it's life. We should be happy, especially on my side. I've been struggling a lot."
"Honestly, it's been such an intense qualifying, especially Q3," added Sainz who achieved a fantastic second sector on his pole lap.
"We all three went for it, we were very, very on the limit. And in that last lap, I knew I had some lap time to come in Ascari and Parabolica, and I went for it.
"It worked well, because I really pushed hard in that last lap."
Unsurprisingly, Sainz said that he would "give everything to hold on to that P1" on Sunday.
"A good start, a good first turn and see if we can battle Max - normally in the long runs he's quicker but I'm going to give it all."
As for why both Ferrari drivers escaped a sanction for driving too slow and above the 1m41s limit on out-laps in qualifying, the FIA stewards stated the following:
"Both drivers stayed at or above speeds necessary to stay below 1’41.0 around the vast majority of the circuit and especially on the straights," they explained.
"However, in both cases the stewards determined that the drivers took appropriate actions to slow and stay to the side to the track so as to not impede other drivers, and in both cases they did this significantly to allow four drivers to pass while giving those drivers a clear track.
"The stewards therefore determine that they did not drive ‘unnecessarily slowly’, and that evidently the reason they were both slightly above the maximum time was due to their appropriate actions and take no further action."
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