Ferrari predict another "difficult race" at the Spanish Grand Prix

Ferrari sporting director Laurent Mekies has predicted Sunday will be yet another bruising experience for the team with Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel starting ninth and 11th respectively.

Leclerc has dragged Ferrari to two podium finishes in 2020 to date, but the starting on the fifth and sixth rows, Mekies says it is up to Ferrari to "make the best of it".

"It will be a difficult race tomorrow with high temperatures giving the drivers, cars and tyres a hard time," said Mekies.

"In fact, tyre management will be one of the key factors, with several strategy options available. It will be up to us to make the best of it.

"In the last two races, we managed it and we’d like to do the same again tomorrow.

"Our aim is for both our drivers to finish as high up the order as possible in the points, trying to defend our third place in the Constructors’ Championship, which has to be our minimum target for the season." The sporting director pointed to the small margins of qualifying as a reason for hope that Ferrari could climb the order in the grand prix itself.

He added: "We were unable to optimise the car performance as the track evolved and we paid a high price for that with our grid positions.

"If you look at by how little Sebastian missed the cut to Q3 and then Charles’ performance in the final part, it’s clear that a very small improvement would have delivered a better result.

"Having said that, we have to work out why the car balance was far from ideal this afternoon."

Before you go...

Verstappen "needs to be seen as the favourite" at the Spanish Grand Prix - Wolff

Another Q2 exit as Vettel blames "nervous" Ferrari SF1000

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