Carlos Sainz talks up teamwork at French Grand Prix

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz was pleased with the teamwork he and Charles Leclerc displayed to seal pole position for the latter at the French Grand Prix.

The Scuderia rather bookend the field for Sunday’s race with Leclerc sitting in P1 for lights out and Sainz on the back row, with him taking a number of component changes to his power unit and therefore triggering a host of grid penalties.

He was very much rear-gunner for Leclerc during qualifying on Saturday and played the role brilliantly as he provided a tow for the Monegasque on his flying lap to help him take pole position ahead of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.

It was as good a result as Ferrari could get on Saturday, then, but Sainz obviously faces quite the challenge on Sunday with him needing to surge through the field in his Ferrari, though he will feel as though he can make good progress in what appears to be the quickest car on the grid right now.

Speaking after the session, Sainz explained how happy he was with the teamwork showed by himself and Charles, and said he was also relishing the challenge Sunday is going to provide:

“Given I’ll serve the penalty, [qualifying] was all about helping the team maximise the result and we executed a strong qualifying. The plan was to go through Q1 and Q2 with only one attempt and then use Q3 to give a tow to Charles, which we did perfectly as a team.

“I’m happy because of that and because I’ve been fast and comfortable on track the entire weekend. In Q2 I pushed a bit more to test the limits and the time was very competitive. I would have obviously liked to do a normal session, but I prefer to take the positives as we keep taking steps in the right direction.

“We know [it] won’t be an easy race but