Ferrari Targets Win in Vegas with Sainz and Leclerc on Form

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz starts second in Las Vegas, boosting hopes for victory, while teammate Leclerc lines up fourth.

Carlos Sainz will start on the front row of the grid for the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Sunday morning at 7 a.m. French time. The Ferrari driver praised his performance, similar to last year’s, which he couldn’t capitalize on after damaging his chassis on a drain cover during Friday’s session.

“It was very tricky. It was a close and difficult qualifying session, and I was closer to pole than I expected. I’m very happy; we’re starting in a strong position tomorrow. Last year, I was also second but ended up 12th on the grid because of the infamous drain cover. Tomorrow, I’ll start second, and I want to do better,” Sainz said.

“We need to stay confident about fighting further at the front tomorrow compared to today. We’ll have a chance to win, and that’s the goal. Today, Mercedes managed to get their tires up to temperature very well, gaining three-tenths in the first sector, but tomorrow, we start from scratch.”

The Spaniard sees no distinction between aiming for a victory and beating McLaren in the championship: “I think we need a win. To beat McLaren, we can’t just finish ahead of them because there’s a significant gap. After that, we head to Qatar, which won’t be a good track for us, so we need this win.”

Charles Leclerc, on the other hand, was frustrated with his qualifying session, during which he struggled to bring his tires into the optimal operating window. It was impossible for him to find rhythm from his second lap onward.

“I had the same problem as earlier this year when qualifying didn’t go well. This weekend, I couldn’t get the tires into temperature. We’re very fast after four or five laps, but we don’t have that time,” Leclerc told Canal+.

“I didn’t do a good job with that; Carlos managed to warm them up better than me. It was the same in FP3 and FP2. I tried to work on it, but nothing worked. I have hope for tomorrow because we’ve shown strong race pace.”

Outqualified by George Russell and Pierre Gasly, in addition to his teammate, the Monegasque driver acknowledged his rivals’ performances: “Pierre was exceptional, honestly. George did a very good job.”

“There’s something about the tires; they’ve struggled more than us all year with degradation, but here, it was about warm-up, and they were better. I lost seven-tenths in the first sector.”