From third to fifth by 31 thousandths
Charles Leclerc is not smiling at the end of qualifying for the Spanish GP to Barcelona. The reason, however, is not the mockery given to him for a handful of thousandths by the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, which made him slip to the third row, but the gap gained from Lando Norris’ pole position: three tenths. They may not seem like many, but with four teams practically all glued together and competing for placings by infinitesimal gaps, they are enough to trigger a alarm bell. Also because Ferrari had not planned to make up for this gap.
Worrying gap
“When you are three tenths behind you need to investigate, because there is certainly something that we are missing today“, ruled the Monegasque in the mixed zone. And to those who asked him if he is “encouraging“seeing different teams so close to each other, the Monegasque replied with some concern: “That’s not so encouraging. Now we have two cars ahead of us by three and a half tenths“. The reference is obviously to Norris and Verstappen, second today.
Even to the microphones of Sky Sports F1 the analysis of #16 was similar: “The issue of thousandths doesn’t interest me much – explained Leclerc – the problem is above all three tenths from pole. Here there is always a balance to be made between sectors 1 and 3 and in the end you are never happy. Today, however, we didn’t have more, this is the problem and this is what we have to look at. Today is not a good day“. Even from a race perspective, the Ferrari driver is understandably not too optimistic: “Fighting for the podium? If there are normal conditions third place is up for grabs. The first and second are not. Are you fighting with Mercedes? For tomorrow I think so“, he commented.
The ‘chance’ reprimands
Speaking to the media present in Barcelona Leclerc also explained the details of the discussion had with the stewards regarding the contact made with Norris in FP3which led him to collect a reprimands: “The version is very simple. Lando came out of the pit lane and I was behind him on the push lap. Then when he slowed down, I slowed down too. I misjudged and found myself on the right. I didn’t want to hinder any of the cars behind and I found myself a bit in the middle: there was frustration and I looked in the mirrors to try not to hinder the other cars and there we touched, but it was more of a misunderstanding“.
#Qualifying #Leclerc #5th #tenths #pole #problem
