Leclerc gets real: Verstappen 'too strong' but podium a target in Oz

Charles Leclerc's hopes for a strong showing at the Australian GP now appear focused on securing a podium finish, rather than giving a “too strong” Max Verstappen a run for his money.

After a promising Friday where his Ferrari showed good pace, Leclerc was less satisfied with the handling of his SF-24 in Saturday’s final practice.

From the outset in qualifying, the Monegasque was unsatisfied with his car’s balance pointing to his front tyres at the source of his woes.

Nevertheless, Leclerc moved up from P4 to P2 in the session’s first two segments, and then opted for an aggressive front wing change to boost his car’s performance in the top-ten shootout.

• 2024 Australian Grand Prix - Qualifying results

But the approach paid very little dividends and left him just fifth in the pecking order, over half a second adrift from Verstappen on pole.

"To be honest, I think it's starting from much earlier in the weekend," he said, describing his struggles.

"In FP3 already, I felt like it was going away a little bit from me, but I was confident that it will come back the feeling in qualifying, as is normally the case.

"Whenever we have a strange feeling in FP3, then you put the new tyres in quali, low fuel, and everything comes alive again.

"Today wasn't the case. I struggled quite a lot with the front tyres, until the last run in Q3 where I went very aggressive with the front wing to try something, and I went the other way.

"But all-in-all, it hasn't been a clean day for me, I haven't been driving as well as yesterday. But tomorrow the race is long, and I'll try to maximise everything."

Red Bull’s relatively low-key performance on Friday augured for a potentially tight battle in qualifying with Ferrari. But that perception quickly shifted in Q3 when the bulls turned up their power units.

"I saw that Red Bull started to put the engine on full power," Leclerc explained. "And from Turn 7 to Turn 9 I think we were losing already three tenths this morning. So that was huge.

"And then from that moment onwards, I felt like the pole position would have been difficult. But then in Q1 we were very strong, so I was, 'Okay, maybe.' At the end, it wasn't.”

With his winning ambitions slightly downgraded for Sunday’s race, Leclerc said he’ll set his sights on overhauling Sergio Perez who was set to start from P3 on the grid.

However, a three-place grid penalty levied upon the Mexican for impeding Haas' Nico Hulkenberg will see the Red Bull driver start his race from sixth.

"I think realistically, it's going to be difficult to target the win because Max [Verstappen] is going to be too strong. Checo [Perez] might be a target,” Leclerc said before learning of  Perez sanction.

"But they seem strong once again because they have more margin than what we initially thought they had yesterday.

"But all-in-all my target is obviously to try and come back and be on the podium. And if that's beating Checo, then we'll try and do that."

Asked if Pirelli’s hard tyre, which most teams including Ferrari put aside for race day, could prove a strategic ally, Leclerc said: "I hope so”.

“But again, we'll focus on ourselves, and if we can put them a bit more pressure, which hasn't been the case until now, then I'm happy to do so."

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