Watch: Charles Leclerc asks fans to stop booing Max Verstappen at the 2023 F1 Italian GP

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was quick to shut down the booing from fans targeted towards Max Verstappen.

The Monegasque driver seemed satisfied with his P3 position at the end of the qualifying session in front of his adoring Italian fans in Monza. Leclerc missed out on pole position by 0.067s to his teammate Carlos Sainz and ended up 0.053s behind Red Bull driver Max Verstappen.

But while appearing buoyed by the roars and support from the Tifosis, Charles Leclerc waved his hand to stop them from booing Max Verstappen. The gesture from Leclerc showcased the respect between the two rivals despite intense competition on the track.

The Italian fans were presumably booing the Dutch driver because of his dominance in the 2023 season.

Charles Leclerc analyzes his P3 finish in Italian GP qualifying

Charles Leclerc later claimed he was on the limit with his two laps. He said he was happy with both of them but disappointed that he could not muster more lap time to get pole position in front of the Tifosi.

In the post-qualifying press conference, Charles Leclerc said:

"Well, our Q3 was really on the limit. I mean, the two laps I've done, I was really happy with my laps. But we were very close with Max and Carlos. To be honest, it's not something that I expected. Until now it's been such a difficult weekend for me. Yesterday, I went in a direction that was completely wrong with the car setup and I really struggled to put a lap together.

"This morning in FP3 was all about adapting to that new car, following the direction of Carlos’ set-up. And then in Quali, I managed to put everything together and I'm really happy with the performance we've shown today. Yes, it's only P3 and I’m never completely happy with third place but considering where we started the weekend, it's not a bad place to be."

Leclerc added that he was optimistic about the race given their performance on all three entire compounds.

"Well, I think it wasn't too bad," he said. "Compared to the others, I feel we probably struggled a bit more on the Hard, especially on the first lap, straight out of the box. We seem to struggle a bit more to put them into temperature but, apart from that, it was good on all three compounds."

It will be interesting to see if Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are able to deny Max Verstappen the record of 10 consecutive race wins on Sunday.