John N
Ferrari’s championship leader was left ruing a lost chance at pole position on an incident-packed Friday evening at Imola. Racing out in front, Charles Leclerc managed to top FP1 on Friday, but in Q3 the Finn Valtteri Bottas crashed and then the rain began to increase in intensity. After that stoppage, Leclerc was left with one last chance to overhaul Max Verstappen—but track conditions proved challenging, and Lando Norris effectively ended qualifying early by spinning out at the very end.
“Yes, I’m not happy,” he said. “Obviously I think we had the pace – we were very strong all session. Q1, Q2 was all about trying to put a lap together to go to Q3 and then push a bit more, but it was a very tricky session overall, and then in Q3 it was all about putting everything together.
“This is why it is frustrating for me, because when it [counted], in Q3, I made the wrong choice, but it’s life: we will learn from it, and at the end P2 is not a disaster. Everything to play for tomorrow and after, and tomorrow and we will give everything,” said the Monegasque.
Leclerc said he regretted his strategy in qualifying, which called for him to abort his second lap after he had taken provisional pole away from Verstappen.“I did one lap, which was strong, and then I decided to abort the second one just to prepare the tyres for the last two, because warm-up is quite an [important] thing and I wanted to have the last two laps at the end of the session.
But that never happened, because there was a red flag. It’s like this, but Max did an incredible job, and fair play to him; P2 is not that bad at the end and he’s starting second for the Sprint.”He’s still starting second for the Sprint, which dictates the grid for Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix—and Leclerc is daring to dream of a home win once again.
