Leclerc: It’s the position we deserve today
Qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was dominated by the Red Bulls, who locked up the front row. Charles Leclerc tried to join the battle for pole position, but was unable to find the pace to catch the Austrian cars. The Monegasque driver gives his impressions after this last qualifying session of the season.
The qualifications were expected to be tight on Saturday evening at the Yas Marina circuit. Indeed, the three leading teams were quite close during the free practice sessions. During the first two qualifying sessions, the gaps were very small between Red Bull and Ferrari, who were occupying the top positions in the standings.
An error in Q3 deprives him of the front row.
However, during the 3rd qualifying session, Charles Leclerc made mistakes on one of his fast laps and fails by only 40 milliseconds to reach the front row.
“I locked the wheels in turns 6 and 7 but to be honest, that’s the position we deserve today,” he declares via his radio.
The Monegasque driver finishes in third place with a 268-millisecond delay behind Max Verstappen, who claimed pole position. However, he believes he is in a good position for the start of the race this Sunday. According to him, the pace of the Red Bulls was superior to that of his team during qualifying.
“The Red Bulls were stronger but we are still in a good position for tomorrow,” he assured Motorsport.com.
A tight fight for the runner-up title in the World Championship.
Charles Leclerc is tied on points with Sergio Pérez, both drivers have 290 points each. The Scuderia Ferrari driver will therefore have to fight on the track if he wants to obtain the honorary title of vice world champion. For that, he is counting on the help of his teammate, Carlos Sainz.
I am sure that we can work together with Carlos as well. I have no doubt about that. We will try to maximize the team’s result. We know that Red Bull is a little stronger on Sundays, so it’s going to be difficult, but we will give our all and we hope to secure second place in the drivers’ and constructors’ championships.
A second place in the constructor championship in sight
Ferrari has been very disappointing this season with too many mistakes and a lot of reliability issues. The Italian team has not been able to exploit the full potential of their car and their drivers. But Charles Leclerc prefers to highlight the progress made by the team compared to the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Ferrari will have to have a great race this Sunday because Mercedes is only 19 points behind the Italian team.
Obviously, after the last two very difficult years for the team, it’s good to have taken a step forward. It would be great for the team to achieve this second place among constructors, so I’m going to push for it. Then, we will go on vacation, rest, and hope to come back stronger next year.
