Vasseur hails Ferrari 'reward' with Monza pole

Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur has hailed Ferrari's pole for the Italian Grand Prix as a "reward" for work on improving their performance.

The Scuderia had only taken top spot in a session on two occasions this season, with Charles Leclerc securing pole for both the Sprint and Grand Prix in Azerbaijan.

But Carlos Sainz secured a stunning pole in front of the Tifosi at Monza by beating Red Bull's Max Verstappen by just 0.013secs to clinch only the fourth of his career.

"It's a good reward because if we are speaking about pure performance, one single lap in Monza, to be one-three and very close to Max - even Charles was one-tenth off - for sure it's a great achievement in terms of development and pure performance."

Vasseur: Advantage to have both cars in top three

Ferrari elected not to utilise the tow effect on their cars for their laps despite the gains in lap time that could be achieved from lining one car behind the other.

Leclerc had complained that the lack of slipstream cost him the chance to challenge for pole but Vasseur explained: "I'm convinced that without the slipstream it's still better.

"You see the advantage of the slipstream in the straight line, but for sure you have the disadvantage [in the corners]. Max was without the slipstream and that was the right call."

With both cars starting on the first and second row ahead of Sergio Perez, Vasseur added: "It's always an advantage to have two cars in the top three, which means on the strategy that you can play a little bit.

"But I think it will be much more about pace than [purely] strategy... the strategy looks good."