Vasseur: We expect the rest of the weekend to be dry

Ferrari drivers did not reach the top four in qualifying for the sprint in Shanghai, but the team is counting on successful performances in other sessions…

Frederik Vasseurteam leader: “The conditions in the final of Friday’s qualifying were extremely difficult, we barely managed to get the intermediate tires to the desired temperature, although that was not easy for everyone today.

We will analyze everything and draw conclusions. The weather forecast promises that the weather will improve tomorrow. We expect the rest of the weekend to remain dry.

We had hoped for a less difficult Friday, as we have not raced here for five years and we are now here for the first time with the new generation of cars. We have to work almost blindly; it was especially difficult to deal with asphalt, but we managed, keeping the Medium kit, which will come in handy later. Tomorrow we will try to earn points and then we will start preparing for the much more important race on Sunday.”

Carlos Sainz (5th): “Difficult session with changeable weather. We got through the first and second parts of qualifying without any problems, but in the third we had to switch to intermediate tires due to rain and we had problems with the rear tires, which meant we couldn’t warm up.

If the sprint tomorrow also takes place in the rain, it will be difficult for us, but the weather forecast promises more favorable weather. In any case, we will try to regain some places in the sprint and have a positive qualifying on Saturday.”

Charles Leclerc (7th): “In the last session I went away at Turn 8, but I don’t think there was a chance to do better today. We were ready to get the tires to perform effectively in dry conditions, but it started to rain. I’m sure we can achieve more over the course of the weekend.”

We prepared the tires well for dry conditions and it seems to be paying off. We will give everything in the sprint race and start qualifying again tomorrow afternoon.”