The United States Grand Prix qualifying at Austin ended with Charles Leclerc claiming third place. The Ferrari driver will start from the second row alongside George Russell. After a disastrous Friday, Ferrari has managed to turn things around, with the SF-25’s improvement further confirmed by Lewis Hamilton’s fourth-place finish.
This session saw shifting hierarchies at every stage. At this round, no team appeared fully dominant, and the scenarios were wide open. Beyond Isack Hadjar’s Q1 crash, the track was notably slippery in the first sector, making it even more challenging to nail the perfect lap.
Leclerc’s thoughts
Charles Leclerc had already shown signs of optimism following the Sprint Race. He can be satisfied with his third place in Austin qualifying: “It’s a big surprise considering the weekend has been difficult for us from the start. We tried to put everything together in qualifying, and we managed to do it.”
“I think there are still some things to understand about this car,” added the Ferrari driver. “There are too many fluctuations over the weekend without changing the car. We need to look at what happened. It was an interesting morning; we learned a lot and now hope to recover a bit.”
The outlook for tomorrow improves after this result: “Our car is usually stronger in the race than in qualifying. I don’t know if we’ll be strong enough to fight with Max and the McLaren, but we will do everything we can. I hope to start well like last year, and then we’ll stay focused.”
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