F1 News
Leclerc foresees "difficult" race: "We miss speed".
- GPblog.com
Whilst it is debatable whether a Ferrari should ever be happy with a P4 qualification, the Italian team will be pleased to know that at least with Charles Leclerc 's car they did not lose face in their own country. While newcomer Carlos Sainz just missed out on Q3, the Monegasque did manage a P4 for the second year running .
The maximum
In the current situation of the Scuderia this is not bad at all. Leclerc said earlier that with a P4 starting position there are certainly chances at Imola. He was also upbeat to Formula1.com: "It was a great qualifying session, although I feel today we struggled a little bit more than yesterday to drive the lap times we wanted, so I struggled a little bit more in the car."
Despite that struggle, Leclerc knows he got the most out of the car: "Looking at the result, we couldn't have achieved that P3 position [taken by Red Bull's Max Verstappen , who was 0.087s off Hamilton], so I'm very happy with today."
McLaren
Yet the Ferrari protégé certainly doesn't think it's going to be easy: "I think it's going to be a difficult race," said Leclerc. "We are missing a bit of speed on straights, especially compared to the McLaren. So we will have to wait and see and hopefully we will have a pace that is good enough to get away [from the McLarens]. If not, it will be difficult to keep them behind us."