Charles Leclerc will start on the second row of the grid for tomorrow’s Italian Grand Prix as the Monegasque driver recovered from a lack of pace throughout free practice to get within 0.065s of teammate and polesitter Carlos Sainz. With Max Verstappen second on the grid, the long run down to turn 1 tomorrow should be engaging.
The 20-time polesitter was 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5s slower than Sainz in the three practice sessions leading into qualifying. Speaking after qualifying in the press conference, Leclerc admitted he had got the set-up completely wrong on Friday and reverted towards the one his stablemate was using.
He also discussed his laps in the final segment of qualifying.
“Well, our Q3 was really on the limit. I mean, the two laps I’ve done, I was really happy with my laps. But we were very close with Max and Carlos.
“To be honest, it’s not something that I expected. Until now it’s been such a difficult weekend for me. Yesterday, I went into a direction that was completely wrong with the car set-up and I really struggled to put a lap together.
“This morning in FP3 was all about adapting to that new car, following the direction of Carlos’ set-up. And then in Quali, I managed to put everything together and I’m really happy with the performance we’ve shown today.
“Yes, it’s only P3 and I’m never completely happy with third place but considering where we started the weekend, it’s not a bad place to be.”
Leclerc went on to explain his set-up choice for Friday, stating that he thought it would be the best option for this weekend.
However, his lack of pace in both Friday sessions soon saw him change his mind. It was quite the recovery, however, pushing his teammate and Verstappen hard in the fight for pole.
“I had a feeling that this was the right direction to go. But obviously after FP2, I realised that it wasn’t. It’s as simple as that.
“And yeah, then it was all about re-adapting to everything in FP3 as quickly as possible, but also there I have been quite inconsistent.
“And then, coming into qualifying, I put everything together. And the last lap in Q3 was really good. I mean, Carlos [Sainz] has done an incredible job since FP1, he’s been on it, and in Q3 as well, his lap was really, really good. But yeah, happier to be that close.”
Photo credit: Scuderia Ferrari
