‘We were just not fast enough today’ – Leclerc eager to look ahead after ‘very tricky’ Qualifying in Miami

Charles Leclerc has shared his belief that Ferrari were lacking in Qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix, with the Monegasque driver ending the session in P3 behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

After gaining one position in Saturday’s Sprint to secure the final podium position, Leclerc admitted that he was “not satisfied with P3” but felt optimistic that the momentum would help the Scuderia take another step forward in Qualifying.

However, despite their extensive upgrades package that aimed to close the gap to the Silver Arrows, he wound up 0.345s adrift of Antonelli’s pole position time and later rued the combination of challenging weather conditions and inconsistent car performance.

“It was on the limit,” Leclerc said after the session. “At the end of the day, we were just not fast enough today, and this weekend.

“We brought a significant package, which helped us, but there is still here and there where we need to improve a little bit.

“It was a very tricky Qualifying, the wind was changing also slightly from run to run, so the car was behaving differently. Especially in [Turns] 11 and 12, there were massive differences between laps, so that was tricky to manage to put a lap together.

“At the end P3 is a good starting position, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Lewis Hamilton shared his team mate’s hope for the Grand Prix after Ferrari tweaked his car following a frustrating Sprint in which the Briton lost out in a close battle with Verstappen, settling for P7.

The adjustments appeared to pay off at first, with the seven-time World Champion breaking into the top three during the early runs in Q2, but he couldn’t improve at the same rate as his competitors and ultimately qualified in sixth place.

He was nevertheless pleased to focus on the positive shift from one session to another as he explained: “We changed the car going into Qualifying and it was much, much better. In hindsight, I wish we’d started with the car like that – that’s where Charles started.

“The car was night-and-day different so I was basically learning through the session. When it got to Q2 it was solid, but then when I got to Q3, I struggled at Turn 1 and Turn 8. I just didn’t really extract the most from the car. [It’s] a much better car for tomorrow so I’m excited for tomorrow’s race.”