Ferrari's Charles Leclerc's pole position looks far more assured ahead of Sunday's race, with the team revealing that his gearbox appears to have emerged unscatched from his qualifying crash.
Snatching provisional pole on his first run in Q3, Leclerc brought out the red flags when he crashed towards the end of the session. It was a hard hit, with the Monegasque revealing concerns about the extent of the damage as a new gearbox will result in a grid penalty.
But Ferrari have revealed the initial checks have not shown the gearbox has taken any significant damage.
"An initial inspection of the gearbox in Charles Leclerc's car has not revealed any serious damage," said a team statement.
"Further checks will be carried out tomorrow, to decide if the same gearbox can be used in the race."
Team boss Mattia Binotto has also said the team will not take any chances on reliability, and are prepared to sacrifice pole position if they have concerns over the gearbox.
"We will not gamble," Binotto told select members of the media, including RacingNews365.com.
"For us what's important after such a qualifying is to try to maximise the number of points for the championship, and to maximise you need to finish the race so reliability remains the priority. If we have any doubts we will certainly change and fix."
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