Scuderia Ferrari Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc recorded the second fastest lap during the abridged Q3 session on Saturday in Sao Paulo, yet the Ferrari driver came close to abandoning his attempt as he grappled with grip issues.
The final phase of the qualifying session was abruptly curtailed by four minutes due to the deployment of the red flag, triggered by an approaching storm that unleashed thunder and lightning over Interlagos.
Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who had completed his run early, secured pole position for Sunday’s race, outpacing Leclerc by a margin of 0.294 seconds. Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, who also set their times at the beginning of Q3, ended the session in a surprising third and fourth place, respectively.
Beneath the ominous, dark skies, with the wind intensifying rapidly, Leclerc remarked that the conditions made it seem as if rain had arrived, but in reality, grip was scarce on the track.
“To be honest, today was, in my whole career, I’ve never experienced something like that,” the Ferrari man said – “From Turn 4 onwards there was no rain. But the car was extremely difficult to drive – no grip. I was thinking about just coming in at the end of the lap. Then I finished and then P2, so it’s a really good surprise. But it’s a very weird one for everybody out on track today. In those sprint weekends, there’s always a big question mark on the race pace. But I hope it will be a good one. Hopefully there won’t be too much rain tomorrow [for the sprint race] and Sunday.” – the Monegasque pointed out.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection! Click here to enter the F1 online Store and shop securely! And also get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
Max Verstappen concurred with Charles Leclerc’s observations, confessing that his sole attempt in the session felt dreadful:
“We didn’t know when [rain] would hit in qualifying but we thought it would hit. But this is, of course, insane weather. Charles and I were just discussing our laps, they felt terrible. I think the wind started to change and started to be very strong. We lost a lot of lap time because of it. It was all quite hectic in the last lap. It seems that is all very close. You can see that already in qualifying. I expect the same also in the race around here – there is always quite a lot of [degradation] from the tyres. So, it’s all about that management.” – the Red Bull driver explained at the end of the qualifying session for the Brazilian Grand Prix at the 4.309-kilometre Autódromo José Carlos Pace.
Leave a Reply