It will not be a front row start for Charles Leclerc in the Sprint race at the Austin F1 event: the Monegasque driver will start the United States Grand Prix Sprint race from third after a decisive move was missed in SQ3.
Qualifying pace isn’t one of the SF-24’s strengths and we knew it: in the Sprint Qualifying at the 5.513-kilometre Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Ferrari couldn’t do better than third, with Charles Leclerc securing that position. The Monegasque driver spoke after Friday’s session, explaining the reasons behind the less-than-satisfying final run. Without updates but still very competitive, the Maranello car arrived in Texas in excellent shape. It performed well in Free Practice 1, and Ferrari confirmed its form in the first two parts of Sprint Qualifying, both done on medium tires. Then came the difficulties. The final round didn’t favor the SF-24, which struggled to activate the soft compound like it did with the medium.
“For some reason, on the soft tire, Mercedes gained something we didn’t have. We were good on the medium tires, but with the softs – for some reason – we didn’t have the pace to aim for first place,” Charles Leclerc explained after the Sprint Qualifying session in the United States.
Charles Leclerc couldn’t quite explain the lack of performance improvement from medium to soft tires, despite some imperfections in his only attempt: “My lap was a bit messy, but I didn’t make any major mistakes. The feeling wasn’t great, but that happens, especially with so little running. We still have qualifying to try to recover. Third place isn’t so bad for the Sprint. Now we’ll focus on Saturday and try to make up ground,” concluded the 27-year-old, determined to fight for the top spots for the remainder of the Austin weekend at the Circuit of The Americas in Texas.
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