Laurent Mekies regrets that Ferrari missed out on pole position in Japan, but he sees enough starting points to put pressure on Max Verstappen in the race. The top man of the Maranello-based racing stable is very pleased with the performance of the F1-75 and the performances of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.

"It was an extremely exciting qualifying session: we missed pole position by just a hundredth of a second with Charles and half a tenth with Carlos," brings up Mekies. "That's a shame because we know pole position is very important at this circuit, but still there were a lot of positives for us today because our car was very competitive with both drivers."

Sergio Perez could not catch up with the Ferrari drivers and his teammate Verstappen. "Together with Max, they [Leclerc and Sainz] were a class apart on a track with all kinds of corners and that says a lot about the quality of their cars. So we can be satisfied with the performance of the F1-75, and we were also able to save a set of softs with both drivers in Q2," said the Italian.

Ferrari expects fast Verstappen

It is still unclear under what conditions the race will be run on Sunday. So Ferrari will have to be prepared for all scenarios. Mekies: " Tomorrow will be a very long race involving many aspects, starting with the weather. Tonight we are analysing all the data and preparing for everything that is going to be possible. Max will be super-fast as usual, but we will do our best to battle with him from the first lap."