Ferrari boss Fred Vasseur heaped loads of reward on the shoulders of Carlos Sainz after the Spaniard’s victory in Mexico Metropolis, with Ferrari additionally bagging a second podium courtesy of Charles Leclerc. That outcome lifted the squad above Crimson Bull within the constructors’ championship with 4 races to go – however Vasseur was eager to not get carried away.
Sainz had appeared good on the Autodromo Hermanoz Rodriguez from the phrase go, ending within the high three throughout each follow session, earlier than grabbing an emphatic pole in qualifying. His Q3 tempo was such that even his first flying run would have been sufficient for pole, however he improved on his second run to wind up over two tenths away from the sphere on what’s a comparatively quick monitor.
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The Spaniard was additionally intelligent to handle his race, not worrying when he misplaced out to Max Verstappen initially, as a substitute trusting that he had the tempo to get the place again – which he did with an impressively late braking transfer as soon as the Security Automotive got here in. And in contrast to many others on Sunday, Sainz stored his transfer clear so there was no want for any involvement by the stewards.
“It was an ideal weekend as a result of from FP1 [Sainz] was all the time on the tempo, all the time there,” mentioned Vasseur. “The pole, he did two instances the pole with the 2 laps and at this time he had the proper drive as a result of he gave up the primary nook as a result of it was a bit tight.
“He was intelligent to surrender the place after which to return again and to overhaul Max [Verstappen], I feel it was an ideal drive and an ideal weekend.”