Ferrari teammates Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc didn’t hold back in Saturday’s US Grand Prix Sprint event while battling each other and their rivals, but both men were satisfied with their performance at the end of the day.
The pair crossed the line in second and fourth place, respectively, showcasing Ferrari’s competitiveness throughout the 19-lap event at The Circuit of The Americas.
Max Verstappen may have dominated the race, taking a commanding victory from pole position, but the real excitement unfolded behind the Red Bull driver as Sainz and Leclerc engaged in a series of wheel-to-wheel skirmishes, both with each other and with McLaren's Lando Norris.
Leclerc, starting from P3, lost ground to Sainz early on, as the two Scuderia charges jockeyed for position in the opening laps. This set up an action-packed race that saw both Sainz and Leclerc pushing hard to maintain pressure on second-placed Norris.
As tyre degradation became an issue, the battle for P2 intensified, with Sainz ultimately prevailing, overtaking Norris on the final lap.
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Summarizing his race, Sainz was delighted with how his race had unfolded, even if tyre management was sacrificed in the heat of the action.
"Honestly, they were very fun battles – a good sprint," he said. "I think if the sprints are like this, you always enjoy them, that little bit of extra action. We had a lot of battles, especially the first five laps, a lot going on."
Sainz admitted that degradation became a concern as the race progressed, but with Norris also struggling, he saw an opportunity to seize second place.
"Towards the end, I was starting to struggle with the tyres, but I saw Lando also struggling and I thought that if I could get into DRS then I would have my chance to finish in P2,” he added. “We made it stick into Turn 1, and it was a fun one."
Despite the non-stop tussles, Sainz was encouraged by Ferrari’s pace, hinting at a strong showing in Sunday’s Grand Prix proper.
"The reality is that we didn’t manage much the tyres because we were in so many battles the whole time that we couldn’t really actually focus on tyre management too much,” he explained.
“Even though we did that, our pace was still quite decent, so it’s encouraging to see that maybe for tomorrow we have a good chance."
Leclerc, meanwhile, finished just outside the podium in P4, 0.716s behind Norris after a last-lap frantic scrap.
While disappointed to miss out on the top three, the Monegasque driver emphasized his SF-24’s strong race pace but noted that his strategy of conserving tyres early on didn’t pay off as he had hoped.
"We had quite a lot of fighting, which is part of racing in a sprint, so it was a very high-adrenaline sprint," said Leclerc. "My approach of trying to save a little bit more in the first five/six laps didn’t pay off and that was it."
Leclerc felt that his late push in the race showed Ferrari’s potential but was ultimately limited by the DRS train ahead of him.
"I started to push at the end and we were very fast, but then there was a DRS train in front with Carlos having the DRS of Lando and a close call on the last lap with Lando. All in all, P4, it’s the way it is,” he concluded.
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