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Charles Leclerc admits massive struggle during Monaco qualifying

by sports••0
Charles Leclerc admits massive struggle during Monaco qualifying
Despite being the favourites for the weekend, neither Ferrari driver will start from the first row. Charles Leclerc will start in fourth behind Hamilton after struggling with his brakes and tapping the wall during qualifying.

Speaking to GPblog, among others, Leclerc said, “The thing is that I definitely don’t know what I’m getting [from the car]. At the moment, it’s a bit of a discovery whenever I get on the brakes. I don’t want to go too much into the detail, and I won’t go into more detail than what I’ve said, but it’s been extremely inconsistent, and I’ve just been struggling massively. Whether it was in Montreal or here, especially when tyres are just not in the right window, and the tyre is also digital. On top of that, the inconsistency from the car made it very difficult.”

For most of Q3, Leclerc was in P10, and it wasn’t until the last few minutes that he was able to make any solid gains. Leaving the pits with five minutes to go gave him fresh air to set a pole-sitter-worthy lap. The Monegasque was only on provisional pole for a short while as Max Verstappen and then Kimi Antonelli crossed the line quicker.

Leclerc details qualifying struggles

Regarding the SF-26’s performance around Monaco, he said, “There were no energy faults during the lap, which is a good thing. It was a full attack from the beginning to the end, which is something I enjoy.”

“Corner to corner [the car] is not really behaving the same way. It’s just extremely tricky. We are speaking about details, but I think the fact of being in or out of the window of the tyre all the time- these fine details make a huge difference. I’ve just been struggling with it.

“I’ve been struggling recently. No, it’s been very bad since FP1. Already in FP1, I felt I was really, really struggling. Maybe it made it better or worse. It’s just been the same. Yeah, tyres and another issue.”

Photo: Race Pictures

Leclerc had time to respond to Antonelli’s provisional pole, but his lap was cut short when it brushed the barriers. This left him down in fourth position behind Antonelli, Verstappen and Hamilton. As he was not able to finish the lap, Leclerc refused to go into more detail about whether or not it would have been pole-position-worthy.

“It was very much on the edge, and I think it was very good laps until then. But I never finished it, so it’s a bit needless to say that. But yeah, it was a good lap. I had a little bit of dirty air in that lap where I lost it in turn 12. There was no traffic in itself; it was just dirty air that made me lose a little bit of the rear in entry, and I touched it.”

Ferrari announced earlier that Fred Vasseur, Ferrari’s team principal, would not be at the track today. This was due to him being under observation after undergoing medical checks.

Leclerc added, “Fred has been, even though he’s not on track, very much involved with today. So, yeah, we miss Fred on track, but he’s been there, and he still supports us.”