Italian Grand Prix: Carlos Sainz 'daring to dream' that he can beat Max Verstappen at Monza
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Just 0.067 seconds separated the top three on the grid for the Italian Grand Prix, which starts at 14:00 BST on Sunday
Perhaps it was the euphoria of being a Ferrari driver on pole position at Monza, but Carlos Sainz was daring to dream on Saturday afternoon that he could beat Max Verstappen and Red Bull to victory in the Italian Grand Prix.
"It can happen," the Spaniard said. "Nothing is impossible. If I get a good start, I will do everything I can to stay ahead of Max.
"This year, 100% of races they have been clearly quicker. That makes me think it is not going to be easy at all. They will try to to get past one way or another.
"But something could happen. We could have a particularly good day. I am just going to try, go in open-minded, drive as if I can win the race, and then adapt to the circumstances and race pace of each car.
"I am just going to enjoy starting from pole for Ferrari at Monza. It is going to be fun."
Twenty-four hours earlier, after he had set the fastest time in Friday practice on his 29th birthday, Sainz had been asked whether he might be able to take pole the following day.
"Dreaming is for free, no?" he said. "This is one of my favourite sayings. I think we can all dream and no-one can it take away from us."
That dream came true. Whether this one can is a different matter.
On Friday, he went on to speak of "being realistic", accepting that the Red Bull had better race pace, as it had shown all year, as it showed again in the long runs in practice.
And, despite the adrenaline that comes from being cheered by tens of thousands of Italian fans, he accepted the same on Saturday.
"The car has been very good this weekend, especially over one lap," Sainz said. "But on the long runs, I am not going to lie, it is tricker. It is not the same picture.
"As soon as you put five or six laps on the tyre and everything starts to degrade a bit, it is where we see their strengths and the race pace we have seen all year.
"It is a good opportunity. Being realistic, the Red Bull should be quicker. But we will try to make their lives as complicated as possible and try to take the win."
Charles Leclerc (right) was on pole position for Ferrari at Monza last year, where he went to finish second behind Verstappen
Sainz and team-mate Charles Leclerc certainly put on a good show on Saturday. Leclerc ran first on their final runs in qualifying and went fastest. Verstappen edged him out by 0.054secs, but Sainz was still to come, and he pipped the Dutchman by 0.013secs.
With the red cars sandwiching Verstappen on the grid, in any normal season Ferrari would be considered to have a good chance of working together strategically against Verstappen in the race. Especially with his team-mate Sergio Perez down in fifth place, behind Mercedes' George Russell, who surprised himself and his team with such a strong performance.
But this is very much not a normal year, and making life complicated for Verstappen in a race has proved an especially difficult task for anyone.
The world champion is on a run of nine straight victories - another one on Sunday would break the record for consecutive wins he currently shares with Sebastian Vettel.
Only Perez has beaten Verstappen all year, and then only twice. Verstappen has 11 wins from 13 races and is moving inexorably towards his third world title.
But Monza has played its part before in stopping a winning run. Back in 1988, McLaren were dominating the season even more comprehensively than are Red Bull in 2023. Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost had won every race until they arrived in Italy. Their car was far more superior to any other than is this year's Red Bull.
But in Monza, it all went wrong. Prost retired with an engine failure, and Senna tripped over a backmarker while seeming to be cruising to victory and retired. It was the only race McLaren did not win all year.
That record - of winning all but one race in a year - is something Red Bull have looked set to beat this season. But Verstappen and team boss Christian Horner have been cautioning against it all year, pointing out how many things can go wrong.
If form runs its normal way, though, Ferrari don't have a chance of holding back Verstappen on Sunday.
The race is where Ferrari have traditionally struggled this season. They are one of only two teams other than Red Bull to take pole - the other being Mercedes with Lewis Hamilton in Hungary - and the only team other than Red Bull to have both their drivers manage it.
But on Sundays they tend to go backwards. Tyre degradation has been their weakness. When Leclerc was on pole in Baku in April, the Red Bulls passed him in the race like he wasn't there, even if he hung on for a podium.
Ferrari have improved their tyre wear since then, and in the race runs on Friday they looked decent. Leclerc was the faster of the two, by about 0.2secs a lap, continuing a trend where Sainz tends to struggle more in races, but Verstappen was the same margin quicker again, and that was despite complaining about his car, before he had optimised it overnight.
Still, the Ferraris do look to have a decent chance of a podium - of the rest of the field, only Alex Albon's Williams, which qualified sixth, was faster on Friday. And even a home podium, even on a track that highlights Ferrari's strengths and diminishes its weaknesses, would be something to celebrate after such a difficult year.
Ferrari fans in the Monza grandstands roared with delight when Sainz crossed the line to snatch pole from Verstappen
Ferrari's struggles have done nothing to diminish the passion shown by the famous tifosi. All weekend, they have surrounded the Hotel de Ville, where Leclerc and Sainz are staying.
On Saturday, they did so to such an extent that the drivers were 20 minutes late arriving at the track - and therefore 20 minutes late for the filming that had been planned for Brad Pitt's new movie.
After qualifying, the Ferrari drivers were asked how they felt about the pressure that comes from effectively representing a country, and the criticism the team have received for failing so spectacularly to live up to their ambition of challenging for the title this year.
"In the end," Leclerc said, "we are Ferrari, so of course there is a lot of noise around the team and we need to deal with it.
"None of us are happy with the performance we are showing at the moment, apart from today of course, when we are quite proud and happy.
"The rest of the season has been very difficult. It is normal that people are talking a lot about Ferrari because Ferrari is Ferrari, and because of all the history they have in the sport, and now it is our duty to make everything to come back to the top.
"I don't feel more pressure coming here; it is just motivation. It is a long week. We had two days on the simulator. We have events in Milan and we feel so much support and you can really feel how much the grand prix means to the country and how much Ferrari means to them.
"It is very special and you can feel the responsibility. But at the end it is a lot more motivation than pressure."
Sainz concurred. "It is a sense of responsibility to give this crowd and the country the best possible version of yourself," he said.
"I could not be enjoying this weekend more than I have even enjoying it, and it has been that for the last three years.
"I cannot think of a better feeling than being a Ferrari driver in Monza. It is a dream come true and it is something I will remember for the rest of my life, going through these years of experience feeling this. I consider myself extremely lucky."
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