Charles Leclerc will start from third on the grid in today’s race, with Ferrari suffering from a significant engine deficit on the straights.
Charles Leclerc briefly flirted with the thrill of returning to pole position, only to be overtaken by Andrea Kimi Antonelli (his third consecutive pole position) and Max Verstappen. The Maranello-based team, as in other qualifying sessions this season, failed to significantly improve its performance on the red tires, also suffering from a significant engine deficit compared to Mercedes, McLaren, and Red Bull.
Leclerc’s third place, however, isn’t a bad thing (quite the opposite), but the Monegasque driver is still feeling the pinch for a qualifying session that could have landed him a front row start. These were his considerations: “Second place was perhaps possible, maybe even first, honestly. But the fact is that the others arrive in Q3 with a different gear, it’s always been like this since the beginning of the year, so for now we don’t have that extra gear. Apart from that, the feeling with the car is a bit worse than yesterday, so in that respect we’ve lost a bit of confidence compared to yesterday. And then the others have that extra gear in Q3 that we don’t have, for now…”
Photo: Scuderia Ferrari HP
