Charles Leclerc acknowledged that a lack of grip and feeling capped his performance in qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez where the Ferrari charger secured fourth on the grid for Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix.
Despite his best efforts, Leclerc’s push on his final flyer in Q3 was thwarted by a slide at Turn 10, which limited his potential to challenge for a higher position.
The Monegasque ultimately ended up 0.319s adrift from his pole-sitting teammate, Carlos Sainz. But Leclerc was candid about his frustrations, admitting the outcome didn’t come as a surprise.
"I'm disappointed, but I'm not surprised. I was struggling and not feeling well since FP2 with the car. That's the way it is," he said after concluding his session.
Leclerc’s aggressive approach to qualifying, particularly on low-grip circuits, has been a recurring challenge for the eight-time Grand Prix winner.
"In Q3, the lap was coming very nicely until Turn 10 where I lost the car, but I had to take those risks just because I didn't have the pace. It's the way it is. I think P4 is not that bad, but of course it could be better.”
In his pursuit to match Sainz’s pace, Leclerc found himself pushing beyond his limits and making mistakes. The 27-year-old acknowledged that over-aggressiveness in qualifying on low-grip tracks had cost him before, notably at Monza.
"[I'm missing] grip and feeling. Sometimes you like the balance; today I don't, yesterday I didn't either. I think it's probably not one of my strengths, the qualifying in very low-grip tracks.
"I tend to push quite a lot in qualifying, in Monza and here I always struggle quite a lot with that.
©Ferrari
“However, it's the way it is. The only thing that gives me some optimism is that I think I was the fastest guy yesterday in race simulations, which is a good thing, starting from fourth and making my life more difficult.”
Leclerc reckoned that he needs to reconsider his approach on tracks with limited grip.
"I've got to think a lot more in order to finish a lap and try to contain a bit more my will to push extremely hard in those qualifyings, because it just doesn't work out on those tracks,” he said.
"Today I tried to do that, it was working pretty fine in Q3, however I lost the car in Turn 10, and from that moment, it was very difficult to finish my lap.
"You slide a lot, just because there's very, very low grip. You've just got to be a little bit less on the limit on those tracks and I struggled a bit more to do that.”
©Ferrari
Looking ahead to the race, Leclerc expressed confidence that the issues he faced in qualifying wouldn’t translate to Sunday’s Grand Prix.
"However, for the race pace, it doesn't seem to be an issue,” he said. “It wasn't an issue in Monza, I don't think it will be an issue tomorrow, so on that I'm a lot less worried. But in quali it's a bit tricky.”
In hindsight, Leclerc also acknowledged that giving up his seat to junior driver Oliver Bearman in FP1 might have slightly hindered his preparation for the weekend, particularly given the tricky conditions.
"I think [having FP1] always helps, especially on a difficult weekend for me. At the end, it hasn't hurt my performance so much.
"It's been a difficult weekend so of course, when it's like this, you want FP1, but we couldn't have known before."
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