Paris, July 25 (IANS) Ferrari Team Principal Mattia Binotto called on his team to deliver a one-two finish in this week- end’s Hungarian Grand Prix after Charles Leclerc crashed out and Carlos Sainz finished fifth in France. Leclerc took his first French GP pole on Saturday and led until Lap 18, when he spun and crashed at Turn 11. Teammate Sainz, whose slipstream helped Leclerc take pole, started 19th with engine penalties and made it as high as P3 before being pulled into the pits to serve an unsafe release penalty and take a new set of medium tires to recover to P5.
The result saw Ferrari take 11 points to Red Bull’s 37 and Mercedes’ 33 – the Scuderia now hankering to hit back in Hungary. “If you would have asked me before this race what was the gap to Red Bull or Max, I couldn’t answer you because I’m not looking. What we are focused on is trying to go at every single race and get the maximum results from it. And it didn’t happen here in Paul Ricard,” said Binotto. “There is always something to improve and learn, and that’s our approach. It’s step by step; we are progressing and becoming better.
Once again today we have proved to our drivers, that we have a fast car and a competitive one. I think we are simply looking to Hungary, we need to turn the page and look to Hungary and do a one-two there, so we simply focus on the next result.
“Our car is great, gentle with tire management, the drivers as well are doing the proper job, and I think we come out from here Le Castellet with full confidence on our package, on our drivers’ capacity and our speed,” added the Ferrari boss.
