F1 | Australian Grand Prix, Ferrari – “The car came to life”

Melbourne, 24 March – The good team work done for the first qualifying sessions of the season is reflected today in the results of Kimi and Seb, who obtained second and third position on the grid respectively for tomorrow's race, with a gap between them of just a hundredth of a second. The three sessions took place in the dry, which allowed the two SF71Hs to make the most of the Pirelli Ultrasoft tyres. No rain is forecast for tomorrow's race either, although Melbourne's weather conditions are known to be unpredictable...

Kimi stated: “Today we really didn't know what to expect from this first qualifying; it was all a bit of an unknown. But then the car ran well, the feeling was good. The gap with our rivals is probably bigger than we wanted, but it wasn't an easy day. This track is special in many ways, when compared to “normal” circuits, and these are only the first stages of the season. I think we will have to wait until the next races to have a clear picture of the situation and understand exactly where the teams are at. Without a doubt there are things to progress on to be able to go faster. I know there are areas where I could have improved the lap time. This is what we achieved today, a decent result in conditions that were not very easy. Tomorrow we will give it our all in the race."

After facing less than ideal conditions on Friday, Seb was able to manage the car better on Saturday afternoon: “Yesterday I felt that not everything was going perfectly, so today I'm happy with the fact that we managed to put both cars in front, very close to the pole. I think it's a great opportunity. The gap with Lewis is important, without a doubt, we don't want to fall so far behind. But the car got better and better today: I felt it come to life in qualifying. In my last attempt I made a mistake at turn 13, but it's not a big problem considering that second and third position are good for the race and, as we have seen in recent years, we tend to be closer on Sunday than in qualifying ”.