Leclerc approves today’s ‘sacrifice’
Fifth place in the Sprint in Brazil for Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver took part in Q3 in Qualifying without using a new set of soft tires – like Carlos Sainz – in order to be able to count on this set of new tires in tomorrow’s race when he will start alongside Max Verstappen on the front row.
The Monegasque even had to defend himself for a long time Yuki Tsunodawhich had new red stripe tyres, and the Japanese’s race gives Leclerc hope for tomorrow.
Leclerc’s words to Sky Sport’s microphones
“I expected something more if we make comparisons with our direct rivals, which at the moment is Mercedes. Today wasn’t bad, but if we look at Red Bull and especially McLaren they made a big step. On all the tracks they are better than us in the race, and on this we need to find something that we don’t have in our package at the moment. We struggled in the first part of the race because we had to manage the engine temperatures. Tomorrow, starting 2nd, we will have fewer cars in front and we hope that this will help us.”
“The feeling in the first laps wasn’t bad, and knowing that it was a long race I managed more at the beginning, also for the engine, and towards the end we were able to push more. I have no doubts about the new soft tires for tomorrow, we also look at Yuki Tsunoda’s race: he was behind me and had the same pace as us, and you can see the benefit of racing on a new tyre. This makes me optimistic for tomorrow, but you have to be careful what you say. I’m optimistic, but I’m not saying we’re going to win. The goal this weekend is to beat Mercedes. Today we could have done better by putting a new tire in qualifying, but we might have gained a position. In my opinion, the choice we made was worth it“.
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