Leclerc “never really recovered” from limited running this weekend · RaceFans

Charles Leclerc admitted he wasn’t quick enough in qualifying and blamed the lack of useful running he had in Mexico on Friday.

The Ferrari driver sat out the first practice session as Ferrari used the opportunity to fulfil their obligation under the rules to run an inexperienced driver in his car. Although the second practice session was extended by half an hour, most of that was lost due to George Russell’s crash, and teams had to spend the majority of the session testing development tyres for Pirelli.

Leclerc was fourth-fastest in all three stages of qualifying. He was furious with himself after his final lap left him three tenths of a second slower than his team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr, who took pole position. “Fucking shit lap,” he told race engineer Bryan Bozzi on his in-lap.

Afterwards he said he “wasn’t really” in the hunt for pole position. “I was slow,” he told the official F1 channel. “I didn’t have a good feeling since FP2 and I knew that it would be a very difficult weekend. P4 today was the best we could do.

“I’m disappointed with the qualifying pace, to be honest, to be three-tenths off Carlos is quite a bit and I’m not satisfied with that.”

He said he hasn’t felt confident in the car all weekend. “It’s been that way since FP2,” said Leclerc. “Obviously a limited amount of running and I never really recovered. The feeling was never really there, so it doesn’t look good.

“It’s not only one thing, but multiple things that means that I’m not probably at ease with the car and I’m not as good as I should be.”

However Leclerc remains hopeful the car may come to him in race trim. “Considering the race pace, I think I was probably the fastest yesterday so that’s a good sign for tomorrow. But starting fourth, I’m making my life more difficult.”

| Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free