Charles Leclerc He completed only three laps in free practice of the Miami Grand Prix after spin at turn 16 and suffer a problem with the clutch of his car.
But after having shown a lot of skill in qualifying in his Formula 1 career, with 23 pole positions, The Ferrari driver admitted that he had been struggling lately to find the correct window of operation with the tires in these sessionswhich was partly the fault of a bad patch in his form.
The Monegasque qualified in seventh position for the sprint race in China, and in sixth for Sunday’s race in Shanghai, while he was eighth in qualifying for the Japanese GP. When asked if he was relieved by his performance in Miami sprint qualifying, Leclerc replied: “I am, because the classification has been a weak point for two grand prix in a row“.
“At one point in China it was a little better, but we didn’t have the car to show it. On such a difficult weekend, [en Miami] I did a lap in practice and went directly to qualifying, I went out flat out and we are also only allowed to use one set of tires [en cada fase de la sesión]so It has been very, very complicated“.
“But I immediately felt the sensation that The hard work I did at the beginning of the season, to try to get the tires in the right window has paid off, so I’m happy.“Leclerc continued.
“In this sport you’re only as good as your last race, so when you’ve had two grands prix in a row where you’ve qualified poorly and haven’t done a great job, people start talking, so it’s nice to get that over with.. “Now we have to work on consistency and try to stay at that level, and put the tires in the right window consistently, like I have done in the past.”
Despite his strong second position in the standings, #16 says he comes into the Miami sprint race blind about his race pace, because he hasn’t ridden much in practice. “I have no idea about our race pace, since I only did one lap. But I really hope we can do a good sprint and have a good race pace to have hopes of winning on Sunday.“, he concluded.
