Leclerc 'disappointed' with qualifying despite taking pole

Charles Leclerc took an emphatic pole position for the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Friday night, topping all three rounds of qualifying ahead of his Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz.

With Sainz not a factor in the battle for pole because of his controversial ten place grid penalty, Leclerc finished almost three tenths ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen who will now join him on the front row for the race.

That was all the boxes successfully ticked for Leclerc, but the Monegasque still expressed his disappointment after his final run in Q3 registered only a minimal improvement in times.

His initial last round lap in Q3 clocked in at 1:33.021s, but despite an evolution in track conditions he was only able to improve that to 1:32.726s with his final push lap which he felt was vulnerable to being beaten.

Sainz same within 0.044s, but Verstappen's own attempt was a disappointment and the Red Bull abandoned its final run, ensuring Leclerc would start tomorrow's race from the front spot.

• Read also: Ferrari's Leclerc romps to pole for inaugural Las Vegas GP

"Obviously it's an incredible event and to be starting from pole tomorrow is great," he told the media in parc ferme after the end of the session. "However, [I'm] a bit disappointed with my laps in Q3.

"I didn't do a good enough job," he admitted. "But it was enough for P1 so that's all we need," he added.

"I think my best lap was in Q2," he suggested. "The track evolution is big here, so I should have done it in Q3, but I didn't. But again, it's like this and we are starting from pole, so I can't complain.

"Now full focus is on tomorrow to try and put everything together in the race," he added. "Normally that's where we lack most performance, so I hope we can put it all together and win here.

"Hopefully we'll work hard enough in order to win and then have a good party to celebrate that win!" he laughed. “I love it here. I came here once in Vegas in the past and it was to party - very different to what I’m doing this weekend!

“Apart from that, it’s amazing to be here, to see so many people in town for Formula 1, which is a sport that I love, and to see how much work that has been put into such an event.

"I hope it will be a successful one with a good race tomorrow," he concluded.

While Red Bull has won all but one Grand Prix in 2023, it's been a different picture in qualifying where Ferrari has claimed pole on seven occasions compared to 13 for the world champions, and one pole for Mercedes in Hungary.

Five of those Ferrari poles including today's have been clinched by Leclerc, but he's not had a good track record of winning from the front. The last time he did so was in Australia in 2022.

Leclerc will be under pressure again in tomorrow's race with Verstappen promoted to the front row alongside him after Sainz serves his grid penalty and drops to P12 on the grid.

That drops Sainz behind Sergio Perez on the grid, meaning that neither Leclerc nor Verstappen will have any support on hand from their team mates at the front once the race lights go out in the Neon City to get the inaugural Vegas GP underway.

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