Leclerc: 'It feels good to be back on the front row'

Charles Leclerc was delighted to benefit from a clean qualifying session on Friday in Austria to return himself to the front row of the grid.

The Ferrari driver lost out to Max Verstappen by just 0.048s in the session that defined the starting order for Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix.

The Monegasque's performance and that of his Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz offered a positive validation of the upgrades introduced by the Scuderia that included a revised front wing and floor on its SF-23.

"First of all, I would like to thank all the guys back at the factory," said Leclerc.

"It's only qualifying but the work they've done in the last two, three weeks in order to bring the package earlier than what it was planned was really, really impressive. And that helped us to have a good performance today.

• 2023 Austrian Grand Prix - Qualifying Results

"I don't think we expected to be so close to the Red Bulls, so it's a good step forward.

"It feels good to finally have a clean qualifying again and to be back on the front row, the feeling has been a bit better in the last few races.

"I've managed to put everything that I wanted in the last lap of Q3, very close to Max but not enough today."

Ferrari has enjoyed good relative strength this season in terms of its single-lap pace. However, tyre degradation and balance consistency have been major headaches for the Italian outfit on race day.

Whether the team's upgrades will have improved the latter is still unclear.

"Race pace looked quite good in Montreal, but again, consistency is where we need to focus," Leclerc said.

"So, we really have to see on Sunday if we've got the same pace as Montreal, but Red Bull for now is quicker on race day, so it's going to be difficult.

"But if we can put them in difficulty, we'll do it."

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