Starting again from the third row
Charles Leclerc and Ferrari resume their season after the summer break from a sixth-place qualifying position. The Monegasque will start from the third row tomorrow at the Dutch Grand Prix, alongside George Russell and ahead of his teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was just five hundredths slower than him. Considering the difficulties Ferrari faced during the first free practice sessions yesterday, Charles Leclerc’s result cannot be seen as disastrous. However, the fact that Isack Hadjar’s Red Bull, setting the fourth-fastest time, is also ahead of the Ferraris shows that perhaps a slightly better result could have been achieved.
Fierce self-criticism
The driver who certainly did not appear satisfied with the outcome of Q3 was Leclerc himself. As has happened many times before, the #16 red, immediately after the session, made rather harsh and critical comments about his own performance, apologizing to the team for a fast lap that, in his view, was far from perfect. Speaking with his race engineer Bryan Bozzi, Leclerc bluntly described it as a “sh***y lap.”
“What a really, really, really sh***y lap! Oh my God, what a disappointment. I’m sorry, you deserve better. This was really sh*t from me,” Charles Leclerc said over the radio, also adding, “horrible, what a wasted opportunity.” Despite this, after qualifying, Leclerc leads 11-5 in the direct comparison with his Maranello teammate, demonstrating that he remains Ferrari’s absolute reference for single-lap performance. Clearly, however, his chances of aiming for a podium in tomorrow’s race are significantly reduced.
Here is the full team radio message of Charles Leclerc after the qualifying session for the Dutch Grand Prix:
Leave a Reply