Charles Leclerc after his pole: (e) I am sure we can win
The Monegasque driver appeared optimistic during the post-qualifying interviews, after a difficult start to the weekend in Singapore. Does this delay Max Verstappen's title? Charles Leclerc still believes that it's only a matter of time before the Dutchman is crowned.
Once again, Charles Leclerc has secured the pole position during Saturday’s qualifying session in Singapore. He will start ahead of Sergio Pérez and Lewis Hamilton, resulting in three different teams in the front of the grid tomorrow. When discussing his results, the Monegasque naturally expressed satisfaction with himself and the work done by his team, especially considering that nothing was guaranteed beforehand.
“D The qualifications were very, very delicate – Q1, Q2 with the intermediates, then in Q3, we didn’t really know what to do. We opted for softs at the very last minute. And it paid off. I made a mistake on my last lap, so I thought we wouldn’t have the pole, but it was enough. So, I am really, really happy »,” said the Ferrari driver in an interview following the qualifications.
Charles Leclerc was relieved, especially after a rather complicated Friday and a limited number of laps on the track. « But we have recovered well. We don’t have much data for the race. But yes, if we execute perfectly, I’m sure we can win. We just have to try to do everything perfectly. And I’m almost certain that the result will be there. »
He also mentioned Max Verstappen’s aborted lap, which probably helped him secure pole position despite making a mistake in his last lap. “Maybe if Max had completed the lap, we would have probably lost the pole because of this mistake,” he later said in a press conference. As for whether it is important for him to delay Max’s potential title by a week, the Ferrari driver brushed it off. “Not really. It’s important for me to win as many races as possible until the end of the season. Realistically, I think it’s just a matter of time before Max gets his title. So yes, we’ll just focus on ourselves, try to use these remaining races in the best possible way. The rest… I don’t care,” he responded to a journalist’s question.
Sergio Pérez attacking for the start.
Facing Charles Leclerc’s optimism, Sergio Pérez also shows confidence for the race tomorrow, despite the disappointment of missing out on pole by two hundredths of a second. “I think there’s a good opportunity tomorrow, right from the start, to attack Charles and go for the win,” the Mexican declared. However, he does not want to sound overly confident, considering that he also had shortened practice sessions on Friday and Saturday. “We’re going into tomorrow blind. We don’t have much information for the long term. So yes, it’s going to be interesting. I think it’s a place where degradation seems to be very high and obviously the conditions – we are expecting a bit of rain just before the race, so there are still a lot of unknowns,” he highlighted during the press conference.
Contrary to his teammate Max Verstappen, who was furious after two failed attempts at the end of the session, especially due to the risk of running out of fuel, Sergio Pérez wanted to thank his team for the second position. It’s an excellent team result. My team did a fantastic job – making the right decisions – and yes, I’m quite happy, it’s solid work.
As for Lewis Hamilton, who will start in third position, his best qualifying performance this year, he reflected on the progress made by Mercedes since the last Grand Prix, despite hopes of securing pole position vanishing towards the end of the session. « The car behaved much better today. We did an excellent job last night at the factory, but also here, and a really clean qualifying session. « We knew the car would be stronger than it was at Monza. « But we didn’t know how close we would be. I was pushing so hard, it was so, so close. »
The British driver regrets, however, grip problems in the last lap and the speed of his competitors ahead of him. These guys are always so fast. “I really thought that with a perfect lap, we could fight for first place.” But I didn’t have the necessary grip in the last lap. Nevertheless, I am grateful to be on the second row and I am grateful to the team for continuing to push, we just keep our heads down and hope that tomorrow will be a better day.
For the race, precisely, the Mercedes driver discusses the difficulties of overtaking in the urban circuit of Singapore, but hopes that his team will have a better strategy than Ferrari and Red Bull, especially through the undercut.
