F1 | Leclerc: “No risks today. Close to Red Bull with degradation”

Charles Leclerc gave an encouraging second place to Ferrari at the end of the Sprint Race of the Miami Grand Prix.

The Monegasque driver, who started on the front row next to Max Verstappen, tried to worry the Dutchman at the start. However, the World Championship leader brought him very close to the pit wall, so Leclerc preferred not to take risks and bring home an important result for the team.

Leclerc was right not to persevere due to the mistake he made in yesterday’s only free practice session, which led to him losing it completely. Today’s 19 laps were fundamental in preparing for tomorrow’s race, just as Frédéric Vasseur had already said yesterday: the Sunday race is the most important thing.

“Yes, I made a good start – said Leclerc at the end of the Sprint Race – and then I found myself inside turn 1. Obviously I didn’t want to take too many risks, because then there are qualifying. And if you have an accident in qualifying, probably not participating in the next qualifying. So I tried to finish there. We both braked very, very late with Max. But in the end he managed to maintain the position.”

What made Leclerc confident was not so much the result itself, but rather the good pace and tire degradation which proved to be similar to that of the Red Bulls, especially that of the usual Max Verstappen, winner of today’s short race.

“After the start I pushed very hard. But in the first laps they had a little more pace. Then we had a degradation similar to that of the Red Bulls. Tomorrow the race will be long. So qualifying will be important to start as much as possible up front. And then we hope to be able to put them under pressure with the strategy.”

Before the race, however, you need to do the qualifying well. Yesterday Leclerc was the only one to worry Verstappen on the flying lap and he did so despite not doing any laps in free practice. Today he will have the second opportunity.

“Yesterday, in qualifying for the Sprint, I was very close to the Red Bull. However, I wasn’t able to do many laps in the free practice. So I hope that now, with the Sprint Race done, I have more experience on this track. And I hope to be able to aim for pole position. This is the objective, then we will see if we can achieve it”, concluded the Ferrari driver.