Ferrari “pretty happy” to cut gap to McLaren after “positive” Spanish F1 GP

Charles Leclerc finished fourth on race day, beating Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

Leclerc classified nearly 20 seconds clear of Daniel Ricciardo in sixth, with McLaren being Ferrari’s main rivals for this season.

Carlos Sainz finished seventh, beating the second McLaren of Lando Norris in seventh.

Sunday’s result means Ferrari trails McLaren by just five points in the race for third in the constructors’ championship.

“I think as Scuderia Ferrari we are somehow pretty happy for the weekend,” Binotto said after the race. “I think we are seeing what was our objective, which was gaining points for the constructors. 

“To finish, as high as possible, and I think fourth and seventh has been a good result. But as well we know that Barcelona is difficult circuit and normally if you're doing well there, you may do well at many circuits and I think overall the car has performed as expected, not only in quali. 

“I think we had good pace relative to the quali and I think as well that both drivers did a good weekend, tyre management, which would have been critical, I think that was lacking in the first race in Bahrain, so overall positive weekend for us. And I think that was our sole purpose of the overall weekend.”

After struggling with severe tyre degradation at Portimao a week before, Binotto said it had cured its tyres woes in Barcelona.

“Obviously when you are struggling such as in Portimao, there is always a lesson learned, and the car setup, car balance. The way you manage tyres on track,” Binotto added.

“So we made analysis from the data we had, discussing them with drivers, sharing with them the concerns and sharing them the solutions, I think we did reactions and I think coming here to put in place with our possible solution and I think we did pretty well.”