A bittersweet front row
Charles Leclerc was certainly not the picture of happiness on the sidelines of the Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying, which had given him third position – later converted to second after the penalty inflicted on Lewis Hamilton.
The Ferrari driver explained that he had not solved some problems he had carried over from free practice and that he had lost a couple of tenths in just two corners – Turn 1 and Turn 12.
Starting from the front row will still be an excellent opportunity given the good race pace shown by the Red cars on Friday. Leclerc told Sky Sport: “In the second run, the car was missing everywhere for me. We had very little grip, especially at the rear. Throughout Q3, I struggled a lot compared to Lewis in Turn 1 and Turn 12 and that’s up to me, I wasn’t good enough.”
The Ferrari driver continued his analysis: “I worked to try and find the feeling, I tried to do something different with the driving, but on the last lap of Q3 I struggled,” he honestly admitted, explaining the 238 thousandths of a second gap from Lando Norris’s pole and the 226 from his teammate Lewis Hamilton.
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Leclerc, there’s the tire issue
The somewhat chaotic course of qualifying also forced Leclerc to fit an extra set of Soft tires in Q2. This means that he will not have new Medium and Soft tires available for the race.
“With the mess in Q2, we fitted another set of tires,” Charles admitted, continuing: “This means that in the race we will have a used tire for the first stint, while the others won’t. It’s not an excuse, but this will put us in a bit of difficulty. That said, I will do everything to win.”
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