Ferrari, Leclerc fourth in qualifying: “I drove poorly but I have the pace to win.”

by Alessio Evangelista

Fourth place in qualifying in Mexico and plenty of disappointment for Charles Leclerc, but the Monegasque will aim to capitalize on his race pace.

Leclerc’s team radio at the end of his second lap in Q3 encapsulates his challenging Saturday of the Monegasque. The winner of the Austin Grand Prix finished qualifying in fourth after a rather tumultuous day.

Ferrari, Leclerc fourth in qualifying: “I drove poorly but I have the pace to win.”
Ferrari, Leclerc fourth in qualifying: “I drove poorly but I have the pace to win.”

In his second lap of Q3, Leclerc made a few mistakes in the second and third sectors that prevented him from going beyond fourth place. However, this scenario is quite similar to Austin, where the 1997-born driver capitalized on the battle between Norris and Verstappen to take the lead at the first corner. There’s disappointment, but also consistency and positivity, as the Monegasque’s race pace looked solid during Friday’s sessions.

The start will be crucial. Leclerc will aim to take advantage of the strong slipstream on the straight while avoiding contact, like what happened last year with Perez. He analyzed his qualifying performance: “Carlos is going fast, while I’m struggling. I’m not doing a good job: the weekend has been tough since I missed the first session, and in the second, we were behind on our program with too few laps. I’m not comfortable with the car at the moment, but the positive thing is that I was the fastest in race pace yesterday.

I knew the car wasn’t optimized for qualifying, but that doesn’t excuse the three-tenths gap to Carlos, so I can’t be happy. Nothing is lost: I don’t want to think too positively because I did a poor job today, and I’m frustrated. Still, tomorrow I can win, of course, but starting from fourth is more difficult than from pole position.”

Photo: Scuderia Ferrari

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