A frustrating second row for Leclerc in Las Vegas: "I didn't manage to get the tires up to temperature"

A fourth place with a taste of disappointment for Charles LeclercThe Monegasque dreamed of a pole position in Sin City after the promising performances of the Team during Free Practice… unfortunately, the eight-time Grand Prix winner could do no better than 4th place in Q3 during qualifying.

In the cool Nevada night, the Ferrari driver had trouble getting his tires up to temperature, a problem that has been following him since the beginning of the weekend. Forced to start on the second row behind his teammate Carlos Sainz and alongside his friend Pierre Gasly, Charles Leclerc nevertheless retains hope of a fourth victory in 2024 with a reassuring race pace displayed during Free Practice.

Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 4th in qualifying in Las Vegas : “It’s pretty much the same problem as at the beginning of the year when things weren’t going well in qualifying. This weekend, I couldn’t get the tyres up to temperature, never, whether we were doing preparation or not. After 4-5 laps, we’re very fast, but in qualifying, we don’t have 4-5 laps. I didn’t do a good job on that, Carlos [Sainz] managed to get them up to temperature much better than me and that was already the case in FP2 and FP3. I tried to work on that but I couldn’t do it. I’m hopeful for tomorrow because in terms of race performance, we were very fast. We’ll see tomorrow.”

“Pierre [Gasly] was just exceptional. George [Russell] did a really good job as well, I think there’s definitely something with the tyres. They’ve struggled more with degradation than us all year and coming here we knew getting the tyres up to temperature was going to be the most important thing. Mercedes was extremely fast: I think I lost six tenths in the first sector alone, so it hurt. After that, we try to recover but it's not enough."

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