Leclerc Left Confused After Underwhelming Qualifying Result

Saturday, 06 April 2024 at 17:00

Charles Leclerc was left confused after qualifying only in P8 despite during the Saturday session at Suzuka Circuit in Japan.

After Ferrari's strong performance in FP1, it seemed like the Italian team would be Red Bull's main challenger during the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix.

In FP3, Scuderia was more towards the back of the top ten. However, all teams ran on different fuel loads and engine modes, so it was difficult to estimate where the team from Maranello actually stood.

In the end, the Ferrari cars finished P4 and P8 in the qualification, with Carlos Sainz confirming his form as the faster one.

Charles Leclerc, who is otherwise considered a master of qualifying laps, was outperformed by his teammate for the second consecutive time.

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The 26-year-old was put at a disadvantage when he had to use one more set of new soft tires in Q1 and, consequently, only had one set left for Q3, whereas most of the drivers could afford to use two.

Perhaps the most confusing part for the Monegasque driver was that he felt good in the car, but his lap time compared to rivals suggested otherwise. He said after the qualifying:

"I'm not happy with our qualifying today. The feeling in the car was quite good, but the pace was just not there, so we will look at the data and assess what exactly this was down to."

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"Our car is slightly stronger in race pace than qualifying pace this year, however, it is quite difficult to overtake on this track, so we will aim for a good start and take any opportunity to fight our way back to the front in the race."

The starting order did not change following the qualifying session, which means Leclerc will start the race from P8 alongside his future teammate Lewis Hamilton in P7.