“It's not great to qualify like that”: Charles Leclerc disappointed after a poor qualifying sees him start 8th on the grid in Japan

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc claimed that he was disappointed after qualifying P8 for the Japanese GP and pointed out it wasn't the way he wanted to pay tribute to Jules Bianchi.

The Monegasque driver struggled throughout the entire session and never looked to have the SF-24 under him. His early qualifying struggles meant that he only had one set of fresh soft tires for the Q3 session where he put his car to P8.

Charles Leclerc, who has been wearing a special helmet to pay tribute to his godfather Jules Bianchi who passed away 10 years ago at Suzuka, mentioned that it was important for him to have a good qualifying. He said (to Canal+):

"By wearing this helmet, it would have been important for me to have a good qualifying, unfortunately, that is not the case today, there is still the race, I will do my best to try to honor Jules who is up there, but it's not great to qualify like that."

While addressing his issues in the session, Charles Leclerc told Sky Sports:

“It's one of those sessions maybe you get it once in a season. But it's definitely not a good feeling. Everything feels okay, the balance is not way off - we can always improve a little bit like every qualifying."

"If I rely on the feeling at the end of the lap, I'm like, ‘OK, this is quite a good lap’. And then you look at the [leader] board and you are a second off."

Charles Leclerc bemoans his 'poor' qualifying despite strong race pace

Charles Leclerc stated that he was optimistic about the main race on Sunday as the car has a strong race pace but emphasized the importance of qualifying on a track like Suzuka.

He told Sky Sports:

“Any of the things I've tried [didn’t work]. So, for now, I don't have the answer. However, the positive thing, if we have to find one, is that our race pace looks a bit stronger. But on a track like this, qualifying position is extremely important. Today, we didn't do a good job.”

It would be interesting to see if Charles Leclerc can recover some good points or even a podium from the weekend as he once again starts behind his teammate Carlos Sainz, who finished P4.

The Ferrari driver had found himself in a similar situation last year in Suzuka as well but bounced back to finish P4 in the race and would be hoping for a similar outcome on Sunday this year.