Challenge for the role of second force
The qualification for the Chinese GP brought back one nice challenge between Ferrari and McLarenwho battled for the role of main chaser of the Mercedes silver arrows. The four red and papaya single-seaters were ultimately closed within less than two tenths, with the two SF-26s that prevailed over their rivals and they monopolized the second row, leaving the Piastri-Norris pair – in this order – fifth and sixth position.
At the end of Q3 the reigning world champion himself has analyzed in a very interesting and lucid way what was seen on the track, underlining the progress made by his team compared to Melbourne in the use of the Mercedes power unit but also giving credit to the good work done by Ferrari in developing their car.
Norris’s analysis
“We have a better engine than Ferrari – acknowledged Norris – and that’s our advantage right now. We simply have more speed on the straight, but there is still a car on the other side [la Ferrari] which takes some corners faster than even Mercedes, so keeping up with them in the corners and then trying to overtake them on the straight is difficult. They and Mercedes have different strengths, we’ll see how it goes. They have better tire management, they have more grip and so it’s much easier to preserve the tires that way.”.
“We have to push like hell in the corners to keep up and then obviously we can recover a little on the straight. If we can improve something then we are certainly not out of the running to compete with them, but it will still be very difficult“, concluded the British champion from McLaren.
