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Charles Leclerc has hinted at a setup compromise that resulted in him qualifying only P6 for the F1 Chinese GP. Ferrari this season is a car that has an almost diagonally opposite characteristic compared to what it had last season. Last season the car was brilliant in qualifying and struggled in races, while this season this is inverted.
This year, Ferrari has compromised its qualifying to an extent to gain a better grasp over the long run. Having said that, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were still expected to have a strong run this weekend and qualify on the second row. When the chequered flag fell in qualifying, that was not the case.
Charles Leclerc was only P6, while Carlos Sainz was P7. Both McLarens and the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso had got the jump on the Ferrari duo and it surprised a lot of pundits as well.
Leclerc, however, felt that one of the reasons behind it was that he's set the car up more for the race than qualifying, and that contributed to a compromised qualifying session. Looking forward to the race, Charles Leclerc still targeted a podium as he told Sportskeeda:
“We struggled a lot in the first sector, which I can have an idea of, and I don’t think it comes from tyre preparation that time. But we set it up the car on my side mostly for the race tomorrow. I think it’s going to pay off tomorrow. However, we did not expect McLaren and Fernando to be able to jump us, so I was happy to sacrifice being P3 behind the Red Bulls with a good car for the race."
He added:
“But now obviously we are starting P6, so it’s a bit further back than what we would have liked. However, we have a good race pace, good tyre management, that gives me the confidence that we can come back to third tomorrow. But we need to get past quickly and hopefully there are no DRS trains.”
Charles Leclerc happy with the progress made in qualifying
Charles Leclerc has not had the smoothest of runs in qualifying this season, as he has been out-qualified by Carlos Sainz in the last two races. The driver even admitted after Suzuka that qualifying was something he did want to improve on. In Shanghai, the driver did end up qualifying ahead of his teammate.
He will start the race in P6, while Sainz will be in P7. When questioned if he had found his groove over a lap, Leclerc said that while he was still not at 100%, there were certainly improvements in play this weekend. He said:
“I mean there was no special lap or whatsoever like I like to do in qualifying. So not yet at the level where I want to be but I’m on the right path and as I said it’s a matter of time and I don’t think it’s going to be long."
The driver will be hoping to secure another podium for himself this weekend even though it's going to be a tough ask to make his way through multiple cars. It will be interesting to see how he tackles the challenge of beating multiple drivers to the podium on Sunday.
