Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was left disappointed to miss out on pole position in Sprint Qualifying at the United States Grand Prix. He explains the drop-off from a very promising practice session with the soft tyres, used in the SQ3.
The Maranello based outfit led the only practice session of the weekend with a one-two result. Into Sprint Qualifying, the pace stayed consistent as Leclerc topped SQ1, while team-mate Carlos Sainz was quickest of all in SQ2. The SF-24 seems to like the yellow-marked medium tyres. In SQ3, the soft tyres were mounted on and Ferrari’s run at the top came to an end.
“For some reason [on] the soft [tyre] Mercedes really gained something that we didn’t quite have in our car,” Leclerc said after Sprint Qualifying. “On the medium we were looking good, on the soft for some reason we didn’t have the pace to challenge for P1. The lap was a little bit scrappy, but it’s not like I did anything weird, it just… yeah, the feeling wasn’t great.
“But it happens, and obviously with very limited running it happens even more so. We still have a quali tomorrow to recover, and P3 is not that bad for the Sprint Qualifying. Now we’ll focus on tomorrow and try to recover some positions.”
When asked if he would be able to fight pole-sitter Max Verstappen and second-placed George Russell in Saturday’s F1 Sprint, Leclerc admitted that it’s unclear how the packing order will look like.
“Max is also looking very quick for now,” the 27-year-old said. “We don’t quite have the idea of who is going to be fast in race pace, so for now [there are] quite a lot of question marks. I don’t have the answer to that question, but I hope that we can win the Sprint race at least – that would be a good sign for Sunday.”
Sainz has a similar perspective as Leclerc and confirmed the struggles on the soft tyres during Sprint Qualifying. However, the Spaniard is not disappointed with the team’s result, believing that they maximised the performance of their car.
“I think we maximised more or less what our car can do around here,” he said. “I had a really good lap in SQ2 with the medium, but then [on] the soft it seems like we still lack a little bit compared to especially the Mercs and Verstappen.
“They seem to be a tenth or two quicker over one lap, especially when you see the lap Lewis [Hamilton] was coming on and the scrappy lap George had and still managed to be two tenths ahead with a very good lap.
“I think it’s more or less where we are this weekend, and then the race pace will be a completely different thing and we will see if we can move forward.”
Regarding the race pace, Sainz thinks that the team is “in the right spot” but explains that the focus will be on qualifying for the grand prix on Sunday: “I think the focus into tomorrow will be more focused on how we can perform a bit better on the soft tyre, because obviously being P1 on the medium [but] P5 on the soft definitely means that there is maybe something to find on the soft tyre come qualifying.”
Leclerc will start Saturday’s F1 Sprint from third, while his team-mate Sainz is fifth. Pole-sitter Max Verstappen has the best chances to gain some points back against championship rival Lando Norris, who starts from fourth.
