Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz frustrated to have narrowly missed the pole position
The Ferrari drivers were hit hard after their failure in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, just a few hundredths of a second behind poleman Max Verstappen.

If both Scuderia drivers improved their time during their second lap, they still failed to snatch the pole position from Max Verstappen. Charles Leclerc, however, finished only 0.010 seconds behind the Dutchman and was on track to secure the first position, but the Monegasque completely messed up in the third sector.
Charles Leclerc attempted to explain where he lost time after qualifying: “It’s a very delicate lap here because when you are fast in the first sector, you lose time in the last sector. I tried to find that balance on the last lap, but I lost grip a bit in the final sector and lost some time,” he said.
The Ferrari driver already has his eyes set on Sunday’s race, hoping that the rain will make an appearance: There is a very limited amount of data, so it’s always a challenge, but the feeling was good in the car. We will wait and see what happens with the conditions. It seems that there will be some rain somewhere in the race, so it should be fun.
A completely dismayed Carlos Sainz
For his part, Carlos Sainz finished in third position, 0.057 seconds behind Max Verstappen. The Spaniard also expressed his frustration at narrowly missing out once again. « It was a good lap, clean until the last chicane, but there, I probably overheated the tire a bit too much and it cost me quite a bit of time. With just half a tenth more, we could have made it, but yeah… « I’m a bit tired of being half a tenth off pole position! », he let out.
« I think that now, it’s been a few consecutive qualifications since Zandvoort, and also before the summer break, where we are all three very close to each other, but somehow, it tends to fall into the hands of Max or Charles instead of mine. I hope that towards the end of the season, I will eventually get a pole position and that I can get rid of (my bad luck, Editor’s note).
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