Sainz-Leclerc, heart pounding in Monza
In the final laps of the 2023 Italian Grand Prix, the two standard bearers of Ferrari, Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, gave birth to an exciting duel for the third final position, which meant the presence on the prestigious podium of Monzain front of the tide of fans of the Reds.
And the fight was no holds barred, complete with braking at the limit, smoking wheels and track cuts.
In the end, it was Sainz who won the pole position on Saturday, with Leclerc joking with team principal Frederic Vasseur in front of journalists, making the move to measure his heart rate. The two Ferraris therefore arrived safely at the finish line, putting on a show and clearly conquering the palm of ‘before the others’ behind the unreachable Red Bull, which lined up fifteen consecutive victories between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023.
Rosberg’s analysis
Those who were a little surprised by Leclerc’s post-race attitude were Nico Rosbergwho dedicated a long and interesting examination of what happened to the podcast of Sky Sport Uk: “I remember myself in Bahrain (2014, fight in the last lap lost against Hamilton, ed) after the race I was like, ‘Wow, that was the funniest fight I’ve ever had.’ But that was the furthest statement from the truth. I was seriously angry and hurt that I finished second behind Lewis and it wasn’t fun at all. But we are pilots and we must always be a bit of a Hollywood actor. Of course, we cannot always tell the truth, because we run the risk that it could backfire.
For this reason I was observing Charles – who had just been beaten by his teammate, who also sent him off the track at the chicane – saying: ‘It was super fun, a great day’, over a beer with Carlos. I looked at him and wondered if he was sincere or if he was doing like me, saying the exact opposite of what he felt. But I think he was quite sincere and I thought he was too ‘good guy’ already in qualifying, when he allowed the Ferrari team to slipstream Carlos twice, instead of doing it once each. Maybe he’s just a ‘super nice guy’, but he’s probably a bit too much“.
FP | Stefano Ollanu
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