Leclerc has “special ability” in qualifying – Sainz

Carlos Sainz believes Charles Leclerc has a “special ability” on a single lap run and revealed he is picking apart his new Ferrari team-mate’s performances to determine how to match him.

Spaniard Sainz, who joined Ferrari from McLaren this season, qualified ahead of the Monégasque driver in Portugal last time out but it was only the fifth time Leclerc has been out-qualified by a team-mate since the start of last season.

“From the outside, I think you can clearly see what he can do weekend in and out with the car,” said Sainz. “When it comes to Q2 and Q3, trying to put those laps together, he has a special ability for that. We can all see that.

“From my side, I need to learn, I need to see what he does, what he doesn’t do, when he pushes, when he doesn’t push, and see how he puts those laps together because he clearly knows how to do it.”

So far, the Leclerc-Sainz partnership appears to be thriving at Ferrari, and the team has established an open relationship between the two drivers in an effort to progress together as a team.

Sainz added: “Last weekend I obviously did some steps in the right direction. At the same time, our target as a team is to have both of us pulling those mega laps together at the same time and having us both in the top five if we can.”

In final practice for the Spanish Grand Prix, Ferrari achieved this target with Leclerc third fastest and Sainz fourth, both within 0.575secs of Max Verstappen's benchmark time and ahead of Marcedes driver Valtteri Bottas.

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