"Splitting the cars is a good thing to do"- Charles Leclerc on strategy to beat Max Verstappen at Dutch GP

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc reckons it might not be a bad thing for the team to split strategies between the two drivers in the Dutch GP at Zandvoort today (Sunday).

The Ferrari driver missed out on pole by less than a tenth of a second to Max Verstappen but will start in the front row. When asked what Ferrari could do to beat the Red Bull in front, Leclerc said:

"Well, I mean, we haven't done the strategy meeting yet, but for sure we can maybe … well, let's see after the first few laps, but probably splitting the cars is a good thing to do when we are in this situation, but we'll have to wait and do obviously the meeting altogether and speak about it."

Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz echoed the same sentiments and said that splitting strategies between the two Ferraris could be a viable option:

"Yeah, we have the strategy meeting in a couple of hours. I think that's where we’re going to discuss the options available. To be honest, I haven't looked at all the possibilities completely."

He continued:

"Obviously Max with a new set of Soft is going to be strong whenever he uses it because here from a scrubbed to a new, at least for our car, is quite a bit of a difference as the degradation is very high. So, we are going to need to check how we can do it."

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Nobody did a perfect lap in those conditions: Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc's final lap started spectacularly, as he crushed the first sector. However, he lost some time in the second that might have contributed to Verstappen clinching pole.

In the post-qualifying press conference, Leclerc was not too hard on himself as he felt the conditions were too tricky to have a perfect lap, saying:

"Well, I mean, I'm sure nobody did the perfect lap, especially in these conditions. Turn 9 and 10 are two extremely tricky corners with the tailwind there, and they are much more affected than anywhere else on track. So it was very, very tricky, and with the balance of my car, I struggled quite a little bit in Turn 10, and, yeah, and I lost the rear, and I lost like a tenth or something."

Leclerc also added that none of the top three drivers had 'perfect' laps. He said:

"So, yeah, looking at it, if you do the perfect lap, then you can get pole, but on the other hand, I'm sure Max and Carlos (Sainz) didn't do the perfect lap either. So, the end result is that we are P2 today."

Leclerc will start in P2 and will hope for a cleaner race after the events at the Belgian GP last weekend, where he lost a grid position for overspeeding in the pitlane to finish sixth.