Drivers React After Qualifying | 2022 Italian Grand Prix

But I was quite confident that we could make it and we did, so I'm very happy. The feeling was great since FP1 yesterday, so I'm very happy that we did a step forward from yesterday to today, raised pace. I'm also quite confident, the feeling is really good, so let's see how it goes tomorrow. I mean, it was always quite close, from my opinion, so I always knew that in qualifying it was going to be a close battle, and I think it was. And ultimately also, we looked at our car, where do we want to be quickest, it's normally for the race. And that's how we set up our car, also knowing that we have a penalty, so hopefully we can show that of course tomorrow. We were fast, it was very fast Q2, Q3, all the way through. It's a shame that I didn't get myself a shot at pole without a slipstream, but it's a good day for Ferrari, a good day for the team, a great day for Charles, a great opportunity tomorrow, so I think we need to be happy. I think it's going to be hard because of the degradation, it's very small around here, and the DRS trains can be very painful, you know, where you can spend a couple of laps, which are already seconds, and yeah, that can hurt quite a bit into your race time. But yeah, definitely coming to the, it's a frustrating season, because the last race the car felt underneath us, all of a sudden, hey, this is a racing car, and then you go to here, and it actually doesn't feel bad, but we're just miles away. Equally a bit disappointed with qualifying, the car felt great in Q1, and then it just went away from me every single run, and Q3 we were nowhere, so in that regard it's a bit frustrating, but the race is tomorrow. No, I'm very happy with today, good job by the team. My lap in the end I was very happy with, the 0.5, pretty much put it all together, so yeah, tough, not an easy, I mean it's a short track, not too many corners, but the margins are very close. I can see the pole sitter, that's a nice feeling, it's been a while since I've been towards that end of the grid, and nice to do it back here of course, where last year was some good memories, so who knows. I mean from the bed two days ago to Q3 two days later, I must say I'm really happy, I didn't feel so good this morning, and yeah, we didn't expect to be in the top ten as well, even starting P6 tomorrow, so no, I must say I'm really pleased. No, I tried two rounds, but the first round was also not good, so yeah, the Q3 was not very well executed. It has been a good weekend until, yeah, that session I would say. I lost the rear into turn 7 in my second run, I lost it into 4, so it was not very clean as a lap putting together. Yeah, it definitely feels more positive and seems more positive than in the recent events, and actually by purely focusing all weekend just for the race pace and setting up the car for the race and doing more long runs than short runs, it's good to see that we're quite close to Q3. It was only like one and a half hour before the first session that I kind of got informed, so the turnaround was very quick, but the team has been great and very supportive, very welcoming. Obviously I hope that Alex is healthy and will recover quickly, but from my side I'm never satisfied enough with myself. I think I put in some good laps, especially the second lap in Q1 was pretty good, but I still felt there was more in it. Yeah, I think today in qualifying from my side I didn't extract everything I had, because unfortunately in my second qualifying, the new tyre, I had a flat spot into turn 4, and the lap was pretty much ruined by then. See how it goes tomorrow. I was preparing for the race since FB1, so I hope this preparation works well tomorrow and just try to progress as much as possible. We're quick in the straight line, very quick in the straight line, but we have not a lot of downforce on the car compared to everyone else, so we have to see, it could go either way. It depends on how the tyre day is going to be, but we're going to be losing a lot in the corners and gaining some of that back in the straight. Well, we gain in some places, but it will be difficult. We don't have speed in the corners and we don't have speed on the straights, so it's not the best compromise, but we'll see, there's a new chance and who knows what happens tomorrow, so we have to be prepared. Yeah, we're going to gain some positions with the penalties, but I think it will still be hard tomorrow. Although I got my lap time deleted, which of course is my fault, I think these rules are stupid, that in corners where you have a natural track limit you can't go any further, and if you go maximum that you can actually naturally go without going off the track and losing all your lap time, you're a couple of centimetres out and then they penalise you, so I think it just feels unnecessary and weird. Yeah, I mean very few laps, definitely, and I think that was the main reason why the whole weekend was compromised, but on the other hand these things happen, it's nobody's fault and at the end we win and we lose together, and unfortunately this weekend was made a bit more difficult to us than we would have wanted to, but on the other hand we got the chance to try it and it was just not enough.