Mexico pole position was ‘really big surprise’ for Leclerc،
MEXICO CITY — Charles Leclerc didn’t think Ferrari had the performance to beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to the front row of the grid in Mexico and believes a strong start will be crucial to converting pole position into victory on Sunday.
Leclerc and teammate Carlos Sainz locked out the front row of the grid for the first time this year in Saturday’s qualifying session, with Verstappen less than 0.1 seconds from pole in third place.
The Ferrari driver, who also took pole position at last weekend’s United States Grand Prix, said his performance only came in the final part of qualifying, after passing three practice sessions and qualifying sessions Q1 and Q2 late.
“It’s a very big surprise but we keep saying that every time we get a pole position, people will stop believing what we say!” said Leclerc. “But I didn’t expect it and this time until very late in the session.
I think in other qualifying sessions in Q1 we were there and then we saw that we had the potential for pole position, but today, until Q3, we had no idea that it was inside the car.
“For some reason in Q3 I managed to get everything together except for the last sector and the lap time came straight away.
“So I was a bit surprised, but I think it still shows us that our car is still a bit on top and we have to work in that direction to improve it in all conditions.”
Asked if the car had the potential to surprise him in the race and allow him to challenge for victory, he added: “Well, I hope so. It’s a very difficult race, all can happen, especially with the cooling where the car is behind.” will really need more management.
“So that can work in our favor, but for that we will have to get a good start and starting first here is always difficult to maintain that position in the first corner.”
“But we’ve had some really good starts this year, so I’m confident we can hold that first place into Turn 1 and then we’ll try to have our best race.”
Much of Ferrari’s chances of victory will depend on the long descent to Turn 1 and the ability of Leclerc and Sainz to keep Verstappen behind.
In previous years, starting from third offered the advantage of a slipstream in the half-mile between the grid and Turn 1, but Leclerc hopes the two Ferraris can work together to stay ahead of the Red Bull.
“To be honest, we haven’t discussed it yet and we will discuss it, but at the same time it is very difficult to predict what will happen,” he added. “It basically depends on how well we start and then we will adapt.
“Obviously we won’t take too many risks between cars, but other than that it’s difficult to plan what happens at the start. It depends if I have a good start, if I have a bad start, so it’s hard to plan.” “.
