Charles Leclerc continues in his qualifying series in which he failed to give his best, thus ending up behind team mate Carlos Sainz Jr. It also happened in Yas Marina, home of the last event of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Leclerc did not go beyond the seventh time. The time of 1’23 “122 obtained in the last attempt available will force him to start from the fourth row, having done worse by a couple of tenths against Sainz.
Yet, entering the bowels of Leclerc’s latest attempt, it is possible to see how the first 2 sectors were extraordinary, in line with the best. So what happened then? Why will Charles start from seventh square after two such sectors?
At the end of qualifying it was the Monegasque himself who explained what had happened: in an attempt to get the rabbit out of the cylinder, Leclerc asked too much of his Soft tires in the first two sectors, so he overheated them. This led him to lose everything in the last one, in which his SF21 began to slip and cause the 24-year-old to lose tenths of tenths, especially between turns 13 and 14.
“In the first 2 sectors a special lap was coming out, I think. But in those two sectors I pushed too much, I overheated the tires and in the last sector I was slow. I didn’t make any particular mistakes, I was just slow. I had problems with the rear tires, too hot. It was a real shame “.
“In the end I did everything I could, I tried. I tried to put everything together, a good lap, I think the lap was really very good, but I pushed too much in the first 2 sectors and in the third I lost everything.”
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari SF21
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
Charles stated that he did not have any traffic problems during qualifying, while others lost several seconds precisely because of this inconvenience: “For me the traffic was ok. Of course, it is always in the second sector, not it’s an easy thing. Even in the last one. But that’s the way it went. For me it went well. “
Once again Sainz did better than Leclerc in the last few outings, but Charles reiterated his mistake, as well as the first two sectors to be framed: “I’m not surprised with Carlos’ performance. Also because mine would have been a really good lap. We knew we had potential and it’s frustrating not being able to do what we knew we could do. In the end, before the last sector, I was doing a great lap. I have no regrets. “
To conclude, the Ferrari driver has taken stock of his season, with an eye on the post Abu Dhabi tests which will already have important news related to 2022 such as the 18-inch tires mounted on mule cars prepared by all the teams.
“I did well in the season. I improved a lot in terms of race pace, while I was limited in qualifying. But if I consider everything, I’m happy with how it went, with the balance between what we did on Saturday and Sunday.”
“2022 will be a year that will bring enormous changes. There will be 18-inch tires, but I must say that they will be a small change, compared to what will happen to the single-seaters. As for the tires we have already tested them during the ‘year and we will try them again in the tests after the end of the World Championship. It will be important to collect as much data as we can “, concluded Leclerc.
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