Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur has praised Carlos Sainz for "stepping up" for the team after claiming a podium in the Italian Grand Prix. Sainz qualified on pole for the race after setting the pace throughout practice and then qualifying, but dropped back to second after 14 laps defending the lead from Max Verstappen when his tyres started to experience degradation. It was one of the strongest finishes by Ferrari so far in the season after they convincingly managed to challenge Red Bull for the win and podium spots. Vasseur branded it one of the best for the team when speaking to media, including RacingNews365 : "Overall, it's the best of the year, we had strong pace all weekend and it was good pace in qualifying. "It's the first time that we're able to fight with Red Bull, even though the Red Bull pace was better than us. "For sure it was the best weekend overall and for Carlos because he stepped forward not necessarily in qualifying and race, but also in the preparation of the weekend - from lap one in FP1 he was there."
Vasseur: We were worried about life of Hard tyre
Ferrari elected to keep Sainz out once Verstappen made his way past, largely due to the traffic situation as he would have emerged behind those yet to pit. It is also because they did not know how long the Hard tyres would last having only ran them in FP1 due to the rules around the Alternative Tyre Allocation. "We were all a bit worried with the life of Hard [tyre] that we are blind because we didn't do a sole stint before the race," he explained. "But in the last couple of laps we had some issues with the front left which meant we had to conserve [the tyre.]"
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