In Friday’s qualifying session for the race on Sunday, Leclerc secured the second position. He was eight tenths slower than Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in Q3, as the track was drying.
Verstappen received a five-place grid penalty for exceeding the permitted number of gearboxes in a season, allowing Leclerc to take the top spot on Sunday.
Leclerc, who had previously acknowledged his difficulties in mixed-weather situations, specifically with regards to maintaining traction on wet tracks while using slick tires, believed that his performance in Q3 was a positive outcome resulting from his dedicated efforts to overcome this weakness.
Leclerc expressed satisfaction with our qualifying performance, particularly given the challenging conditions.
Putting everything together is always a challenging task. I dedicated considerable effort to improving those conditions, especially since I felt uneasy during previous races. Fortunately, my hard work appears to be yielding positive results.
We arrived a little too soon for our final attempt, but securing the pole position was certainly not in our favor today.
Max was extremely fast, although we could have been slightly nearer. With that being mentioned, our starting position for Sunday is excellent.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Erik Junius
Leclerc faced obstacles during his initial Q2 attempt due to Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, who continued on the racing path after colliding with the wall and causing damage to his vehicle. As a result, the FIA stewards called upon Magnussen for an explanation.
Leclerc mentioned that it was quite challenging as Kevin, who was also involved, veered towards the wall and then carried on ahead of me.
“So I didn’t put a lap in early and then you’ve got all the pressure on that last lap that, and in those conditions it wasn’t easy.
However, in the end, everything turned out positively. Therefore, I am content and satisfied.
With that being mentioned, there is still a considerable amount of tasks remaining to be done in order to catch up with the Red Bulls.
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