Canadian Grand Prix: Monaco exaltation followed by Montreal scare for Leclerc

Weeks follow one another, but they are not the same for Charles Leclerc.

Everything was fine two weeks ago. During the Grand Prix in his native Monaco, Leclerc relished the victory, but he also enjoyed the thrill of taking pole position.

Barely 14 days away, the Scuderia driver might prefer to forget about qualifying day for the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal. Leclerc was unable to qualify for the third part of qualifying and will have to start from eleventh place on Sunday.

Shortly after saying “I'm not going to comment here” while still in his car following his Q3 exclusion, Leclerc revealed his feelings to the media on Saturday.

“It's frustrating to go from a good weekend to a bad weekend like this now. We still have the race to go and I hope we can catch it.”

Leclerc set a time of 1:12.691, which did not allow him to continue with his work day.

“We weren't fast and even more so we weren't successful. The two factors together mean we don't move into Q3. It wasn't too bad of a ride at the time we did it, but it wasn't anything special. I noticed the traffic at Turn 10 with the McLaren but hey …We were not fast enough.”

This day is not just limited to Leclerc, it is a day to remember for the entire team. Carlos Sainz was unable to perform better than his colleague for the twelfth time in the second division.

“Since we were in the dry phase, we couldn't get the tires running,” Leclerc admitted. This morning we lost four tenths in the first two turns and had no control. These are not special problems. »

“This weekend we are not at the same level as the other races,” Sainz said simply.

Unlike many teams, Ferrari was unable to adapt to tire problems on the track. The team will have to find a solution on Sunday in hopes of seeing its two drivers finish in the points.

“Like many of our competitors, we had difficulty with the tyres. George Russell took the lead on worn tyres, not new tyres. It's the same for everyone, but we couldn't get things sorted when we needed to. “Our mistake, but we have to keep our morale high for tomorrow's race.”

Ferrari can still console itself by looking at the results of the 2023 edition, as after starting in eighth and 11th places respectively, Sainz and Leclerc finished the race in fourth and fifth places.