Carlos Sainz, for his second victory: this will be the red battle at the Hungaroring

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Ferrari has the pace and

has the

.

has the place and

, the stripes.

It would seem like a tangled skein, but that is precisely why today's race at the Hungaroring looks so attractive.

A fight for the hierarchy in the red garage to which we must add the chess game against Mercedes.

Sainz sees his second victory in F1 at hand.

Yesterday, only a few minutes after running out of

, he had already convinced himself of it.

Carlos's laments did not last long, which was delayed in the official press conference and in the rest of the attention to the media.

From the sad countenance with which he was photographed sitting next to the FIA ​​facilities to another tone, much more recomposed, at the exit of the mixed zone.

"The car gave me a couple of whiplashes. That second attempt was not special, not enough for

. With a perfect lap, I would have been up there for sure," he admitted.

And from that moment on, his mind went to work on the race.

Today, from second place on the grid, Carlos will have to control Leclerc, his garage mate, on the dirty side.

"We will have to see who comes out in front of the first corner," he warned.

And this is not a toast to the sun.

Not a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Sainz simply knows that he cannot hesitate with the clutch like in Melbourne or Montmeló, for example.

At the critical moment at the traffic lights, on the way to the sharp hairpin to the right, Carlos and Charles have to maintain their composure.

Desire to compensate

That was discussed yesterday in the usual

pre-race

, boss of the

.

Inside there they know very well the superiority of their pace with medium tires against Mercedes.

An advantage that on Friday amounted to almost seven tenths per lap also over Red Bull, which yesterday left

on the road .

A loss of engine power forces the World Championship leader to make an unlikely comeback from the tenth step of the grid.

Leclerc, with 63 points less in the championship, could be affected by the rush or the desire to make up for his recent abandonment at Paul Ricard.

Therefore, Binotto has ordered discipline.

"We will have to respect each other a lot in the first lap and later on the team will decide," Sainz reiterated.

In this situation, obviously, the race has to be resolved.

If only the recent merits fit in the balance, Ferrari should privilege the Madrid driver, capable of getting the best out of his driving since the Canadian GP.

Fast, intelligent, tenacious, Carlos has been silencing critics with the same virtues that opened the doors of Maranello to him.

At last he has managed to adapt his style to the demands of the car.

And he will improve even more in the second half of the World Cup.

He already did it at Renault or McLaren.

load up on patience

However, Leclerc's spell is still very much in force in the red garage.

There is a great desire to compensate the Monegasque for his misfortunes.

When the power unit fell apart in Baku and Barcelona or when strategic mistakes knocked him off the lead in Monte Carlo or Silverstone.

It is never easy to assume that with such a competitive car, the title already seems like a pipe dream.

And a little push before vacation could be understood as the logical atonement.

"We know that the race will be long and we can win, but we must approach it with philosophy," said Sainz, looking askance at Mercedes.

You have to keep in mind the aerodynamic load of the Silver Arrows and the difficulties of the Hungaroring.

An intricate and narrow layout in which each maneuver has to be chewed without haste.

Suffice it to remember last year, when

blocked

for 10 laps to hand victory to

.

Today's 70 laps won't leave room for error either, especially in the strategic section.

According to Pirelli's calculations, the most plausible option would be a single stop, from soft to hard or medium to hard.

This increases the options to safeguard the position.

"The speed is there"

However, a double pit stop (soft-medium-medium or soft-medium-soft) cannot be ruled out.

For the record, Ocon won here 12 months ago with two stops, while Verstappen and Hamilton made four.

And that each step through the

means leaving 21 seconds.

A very high toll, to which not a single doubt can be added with the gun or when releasing the car.

Sainz's podium escaped through that crack last Sunday at Le Castellet.

The other differential factor, closely linked to the previous one, will affect tire management, as

clarified .

"After the midday rain we found a track that was no longer rubberized and at a much lower temperature, so we had to start over," analyzed the Ferrari sports director.

The dramatic drop, from almost 50ºC on asphalt to around 25ºC, took its toll on Leclerc.

"The speed is there. We just have to understand what has happened with the tires", he finished the '16'.

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• Carlos Sainz Jr.

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