Charles Leclerc says that qualifying on low-grip tracks like Mexico City and Monza is “not one of my strengths” after he had to settle for fourth on the grid for Sunday’s race.
The Ferrari driver was P4 in all three qualifying sessions, while his team mate Carlos Sainz secured pole position. A mistake in Q3 spoiled any chance of improving his position.
Leclerc says he has issues over one lap at Monza, where cars are in low drag spec, and Mexico, where the high altitude saps downforce.
“Disappointed, but not surprised,” he said of P4. “I was struggling and not feeling well since FP2 with the car.
“In Q3 the lap was coming very, very nicely until Turn 10, where I lost the car. But I had to take those risks, just because I didn’t have the pace. I think P4 is not that bad. But of course, disappointed.”
Asked what he was missing he said: “Just grip, and the feeling. Sometimes you like the balance, today I don’t. Yesterday, I didn’t either.
“I think it’s probably not one of my strengths, the qualifying in very low grip tracks. I tend to push quite a lot in qualifying, and in Monza and here, I always struggle quite a lot with that.”
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Leclerc suggested that he has to rein himself in at such venues, and not push too hard.
“I’ve got to think a lot more in order to finish a lap,” he said. “And try to contain a bit more my will to push extremely hard in those qualifyings, because it just doesn’t work out on those tracks.
“And, yeah, today I tried to do that. It was working pretty fine. In Q3 however, I lost the car in Turn 10, and from that moment onwards, it was very difficult to finish a lap.”
“You slide a lot, just because there’s very, very low grip. You’ve just got to be a little bit less on the limit on those tracks, and I struggle a bit more to do that.
“However, for the race pace, it doesn’t seem to be an issue. It wasn’t an issue in Monza. I don’t think it would b e an issue tomorrow. So on that, I’m a lot less worried, but in quali, it’s a bit tricky.”
Leclerc won the US GP from fourth on the grid, but while he is optimistic about Sunday’s race, he acknowledges that it won’t be as straightforward as last weekend.
“McLaren has gained a lot of pace compared to yesterday,” he said. “Max [Verstappen] obviously didn’t run a lot yesterday, so it’s difficult to compare with Max. Actually, we don’t know about Max’s race pace.
“We are quite confident that our car could have a good pace tomorrow. However, I think it’s a different scenario compared to Austin, where there it’s very easy to overtake.
“
s, for everything, and whenever you are P4, then you’ve got to manage all these things, and it makes it a lot more difficult to come back.
“But we’ll try our best, and if we do a good start like last week, then everything is possible.”
