Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz and the team tried to move up the order, adopting different strategies in terms of the tyre choices, but it wasn’t enough to move forward from the fifth and sixth places they had occupied on the grid. The team leaves Barcelona with a further 18 points, still second in the Constructors’ championship, aware that it needs to make progress in qualifying in order to start further up the grid, given that the gaps between the front runners are very close, which means it’s hard to overtake and gain places on Sunday.

The race.

Charles and Carlos started on new Soft tyres, hoping to have the edge over the Mercedes who started on used ones, but off the line they were unable to get ahead, running fifth and sixth, even if the Spaniard soon got ahead of his team-mate. Sainz was the first of the Ferraris to pit, switching to Medium tyres on lap 15, while Leclerc stayed out, running an acceptable pace up until lap 21. At the second stop, the teams therefore split the strategies: Carlos came in on lap 36 fitting a set of new Hards, while once again, Charles prolonged his stint which meant he could risk running a set of Softs to the end of the race. Sainz therefore let Leclerc past on lap 55, the Monegasque then setting off in pursuit of George Russell, to try and snatch fourth place. He caught up with the Mercedes driver on the last lap, but it was too late to try an overtaking move, which would have been on the cards if only the race had been one lap longer.