A Tale of Two Qualifying Sessions for Ferrari: Leclerc Finishes a Brilliant 3rd, While Hamilton Only Manages 9th
It was a Saturday of mixed emotions for Ferrari in qualifying, as Charles Leclerc pulled off an excellent lap to grab third place. The Monegasque Ferrari driver managed to secure P3 on his only attempt in Q3, finishing just three and a half tenths behind Piastri and one and a half tenths behind George Russell in second. A lap beyond what the car seemed capable of from driver number 16.
Leclerc commented on his qualifying: “I wasn’t expecting third place. I knew there was margin in Q3 in terms of lap time, but I had to be patient in Q1 and Q2, waiting for the track to improve. It wasn’t easy, because on the first run with used tires the feeling was negative, but with the new set it went much better. It’s a surprising result, but I think it’s the result of the work we’ve done over the last few weeks, where we’ve explored some very extreme setups. Now it seems like we’ve found the right direction, and I believe there’s even more performance to be extracted in the upcoming weekends.”
He added: “The team has worked incredibly hard to bring these upgrades. Maybe this isn’t the ideal track to showcase them, but there was an improvement, even if not a huge one. Hopefully starting next week we’ll be able to fight even closer to the top. Being third, with such a small margin, shows the work is paying off.”
For Hamilton, it was a much tougher qualifying session. He could do no better than ninth place, finishing almost a full second off pole position. A repeat of the Suzuka pattern for the seven-time world champion, who couldn’t deliver a strong enough final lap in Q3. His comments: “Having just one attempt in Q3 didn’t really matter—I was simply too slow. Right now, I don’t think I can feel confident going into the race. I’m really sorry for the whole team, both here and back at the factory, and I want to apologize to all the Ferrari fans.”
Photo: Scuderia Gallery
