In Lusail, the Monegasque driver was 332 milliseconds off the time that earned Max Verstappen pole place however had cause to remorse lacking out on fourth place by simply 23 milliseconds to Oscar Piastri within the second McLaren.
Ending forward of at the least one of many two MCL38s would have been vital for the Constructors’ Championship, however the factors shall be awarded tomorrow, leaving room for restoration regardless of Qatar’s circuit providing restricted overtaking alternatives.
“I feel there shall be a battle, however I don’t know if will probably be a superb one as a result of, as we noticed within the Dash, overtaking on this monitor is admittedly very tough,” Charles Leclerc identified.
“There shall be a battle, however I don’t suppose will probably be thrilling as a result of overtaking is so laborious. It will likely be extra about administration. And in that side, we’re sturdy, among the best automobiles. However I feel the opposite groups have additionally made progress since this morning. We’ll see, however we’re not in a nasty place.” – the Monegasque driver added.
Charles Leclerc clarified that his feedback about race tempo and administration had been directed towards McLaren. Pink Bull and Mercedes, he defined, present such fluctuating performances from session to session that it’s laborious to contemplate them constant rivals for achievement or a podium end.
“I evaluate myself primarily to McLaren as a result of it’s very obscure Pink Bull and Mercedes. There are classes the place they’re extremely sturdy, and others the place they battle simply as a lot. Right now, Max was far behind within the Dash, and now he’s taken pole. It’s very laborious to determine them out.”
Charles Leclerc acknowledged that being near the 2 papaya automobiles may finally play to his benefit.
“So each of my laps had been actually good, and there wasn’t far more to extract in any of the corners. I used to be merely doing the identical lap time, and that was the perfect the automobile may do at present. So P5 is, sure, not nice, however on the identical time, we’ve McLaren proper forward, so it may have been worse.”
“We’ll want a superb begin and robust first laps to attempt to get previous one in every of them after which put stress on the opposite. I feel we’re fast over lengthy runs, however as I mentioned this morning, it’s very laborious to overhaul right here. So I don’t suppose we’ll have the ability to take full benefit of that tempo,” the Monegasque added.
Charles Leclerc concluded with a phrase that sums all of it up: “I feel this has been a return to actuality after all of the euphoria that has surrounded us recently.”
Dec 1, 2024
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