Vasseur focuses on Ferrari's positives despite yellow flag controversy in Austrian GP qualifying

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur was keen to focus on the positives after qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc securing second on the grid and Lewis Hamilton lining up third behind Mercedes' George Russell.

While Ferrari questioned the circumstances surrounding the yellow flags that affected the closing moments of qualifying, Vasseur insisted the Scuderia's competitiveness was the biggest takeaway from Saturday at the Red Bull Ring.

"No," Vasseur said when asked if he was frustrated by the outcome. "First I'm taking the positive that we are second and third, that we are in the fight with Mercedes in the Quali and able probably to have good pace for tomorrow."

"This is most important. We still have 15 races to go and the most important [thing] is the performance."

Vasseur also addressed the controversial yellow flag situation, which was triggered after the Medical Car was deployed late in the session. While Ferrari stopped short of criticising the FIA's decision, the Frenchman admitted there were valid questions over the handling of the incident.

"On the incident [with the yellows] you can discuss at length whether it was reasonable to not have double yellow in these circumstances when you deploy the Medical Car," he explained. "Then we don't have the data of the mini sector, we can't check if you reduce the speed by five per cent or not, but we have to trust Race Control and I will do it."

The result was particularly encouraging for Leclerc, who responded impressively after a difficult run of weekends. The Monegasque crashed during qualifying in both Monaco and Barcelona before mechanical failures forced him to retire from both Grands Prix.

Despite the setbacks, Vasseur insisted he never doubted Leclerc's underlying speed: "It was more you journalists who were a bit worried," Vasseur said with a smile. "I was not, honestly."

"On his last lap in Monaco he was fighting for pole, he was two tenths in advance compared to Max. When he crashed in Barcelona he was also on a very good lap – the pace was always there."

"Now he was a bit under pressure when you start to do mistakes, and it's good for him to come back, to do a good lap and to put everything together but the pace was always there."

Looking ahead to Sunday's race, Ferrari enters the weekend on the back of Lewis Hamilton's breakthrough victory for the Scuderia in Barcelona, where excellent tyre management and a well-executed three-stop strategy proved decisive. However, Vasseur warned against expecting a repeat performance, especially with Mercedes appearing to have the edge over a single lap in Austria.

"Even when they slow down they are faster than us!" Vasseur joked.

"But each day it's another story – it's not because we had good tyre management two weeks ago that it will work tomorrow."

Instead, Ferrari's focus will be on executing another clean race and managing its own performance rather than becoming distracted by rivals.

"We have to put ourselves in clean air, to pay attention to our car and our tyres and not to be focused on the fight or something else," Vasseur concluded. "It's what we did [in the] last race and let's try to do the same tomorrow."