Leclerc: Positive qualifying despite mistakes on final lap

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Charles Leclerc (MON) Ferrari celebrates his pole position in qualifying parc ferme – © Copyright: Coates / XPB Images

Charles Leclerc feared that the mistakes he made on his final flying lap in qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix could have cost him pole position at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

Max Verstappen was en route to his fifth pole position of the season before he was told on team radio to abort his final flying lap as Red Bull had fears of him not having enough fuel onboard to pass the post-session scrutineering checks.

The inconsistent damp conditions on a track made it difficult for the drivers to push the limits on the newly resurfaced street circuit, which Leclerc indicated as one of the reasons his final lap wasn’t great.

“There was the last sector that was quite tricky because there were quite a lot of damp parts,” he told media following qualifying. “Also turn 13 was quite tricky so it was not the same everywhere, so you had to adapt and also go with track improvements.

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“I think the second last lap was good, especially for the track conditions at the time. It was all about building up for that last lap. Unfortunately for the last lap I made my first mistake in turn 13 and then in turn 16 I went straight and that was it basically.”

“Apart from that, I think we’ve been very competitive for the whole qualifying sessions which is great to see especially in conditions like this. The car feels good and it’s been a positive qualifying session, just a shame I couldn’t put everything together on the last lap.”

The Monegasque driver will start ahead of Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton in Sunday’s race with it being his second consecutive pole position at the circuit after previously qualifying at the front of the grid in 2019.

When asked if this pole lap was better than his previous one from 2019, Leclerc replied: “This one, for the conditions especially.

“Q1 and Q2 with intermediates and we were really quick and then you restart everything from zero with Q3 when we finally went on slicks but it was very, very tricky out there. So yeah, this one was more difficult.”

“Overall, I think the feeling with the car has been great all weekend long. Yes, we are missing a little bit of data for the race tomorrow but that doesn’t concern me too much. We just need to try and do everything perfectly and I’m pretty sure the result will be there.”

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