"I wasn't expecting a Ferrari pole position this year": Prancing Horse's pole position at Le Mans 24 hours surprises F1 fans 

F1 Grand Prix of Spain
Carlos Sainz of Spain driving (55) the Ferrari SF-23 on track during the F1 Grand Prix of Spain

Former Red Bull engineer Blake Hinsley took a sly dig at Ferrari's performance after the Italian team managed to lock out the front row for the 24 hours of Le Mans race.

The Italian team might be struggling to compete at the front in F1, but they have showcased their dominance in the Endurance championship. Antonio Fuoco, an FDA alumni, took the pole position at the iconic race driving for the Ferrari AF Corse.

Fuoco finished ahead of his teammate Alessandro Pier Guidi in the same car by a margin of 0.7s on one of the most famous road courses in the world. The feat caught out many, including former Red Bull engineer-turned-YouTuber Blake Hinsley, who took a sly dig at Ferrari on social media, writing:

"I wasn't expecting a Ferrari pole position this year... jeezus."

Here are some more reactions:

The Ferrari duo will start ahead of the Toyota pairing of Kamui Kobayashi and Brendon Hartley in the Hypercar series.

Ferrari team boss optimistic about team's progress in the 2023 season

It has been a very tricky season for the Prancing Horses but team boss Frederic Vasseur was confident that they can fight Mercedes for P2 in the championship.

Vasseur said, as per Sky Sports:

"I think as soon as we will unlock the situation with consistency we can imagine fighting with them [Mercedes] all over the race. With Red Bull, it's another story, especially with Verstappen. He is still much faster than us in quali, much faster in the race."

Vasseur continued:

"We have 1,000 people [working] on this now and it is very difficult to understand and to fix it because it's not always the same problem. It's true that in qualifying, you are in free air, and in the race, you are not. I think Charles struggled a lot in the first stint as he was a lot closer to the car in front of him."
"The main issue for us is not the potential on the lap on [high-speed] corners, the main issue is the inconsistency. On Charles' car for example, between the first and third stints with the same compound, one the balance was out of place, and the last one was OK, and with Carlos, he did a decent first stint, and in the middle, he lost 15 or 20 seconds."

It will be interesting to see where the Italian team ends up at the end of the season.

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Edited by Ritwik Kumar
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