Charles Leclerc had led after the first attempt in Q3 of the 2022 Dutch Grand Prix, setting the first sector record on the last thrown lap. However, he was unable to improve his personal best in the second sector, let alone set a time equal to Max Verstappen, who took pole position at his home race in a Red Bull that continues to prove its superiority.
The Monegasque recognized that he made a mistake in that part of the track, since not even the best time in the last sector helped him to overcome those 21 thousandths that the Dutchman managed to get out of him before Sergio Pérez spun when the checkered flag fell.
At the post-qualifying press conference at Zandvoort, the Ferrari driver pointed to a mistake of his own at Turn 10 as the reason he couldn’t beat Verstappen, and when asked by Motorsport.com for more details he said: ” I’m sure no one did the perfect lap.”
“In these conditions, Turns 9 and 10 are extremely tricky with the tailwind, and we are affected more than anywhere else on the track, so it was very tricky,” Leclerc said.
“Then, with the balance of my car, it cost me a bit in turn 10, and I lost the rear, which made me drop like a tenth,” continued the Monegasque. “Looking at [the final results], if you do the perfect lap, you can get pole position, but on the other hand, I’m convinced that Max [Verstappen] and Carlos [Sainz] didn’t do the ideal lap either, so the result is that we are seconds”.
In response to the question if he was frustrated at not setting the fastest time, the driver denied it: “On top of that, seeing the difference with Max today, I didn’t expect to go into Q3 with options after Q1 and Q2 we had , which were very complicated.”
“In the end, in Q3, the single-seater felt quite good, I could push,” acknowledged Charles Leclerc, who revealed that “he was not happy with the balance of the car in the last races and qualifying”, but that “today he felt a bit better”.
Leclerc said Ferrari’s improvement in the decisive round at Zandvoort was due to it trying “different things on the lap and it was a little bit better”. Those efforts allowed him to have “a stronger front end” after he had “struggled with understeer.”
“We have to work on that [more], but for the race I was feeling more confident instead, so I’m a little bit more confident for tomorrow,” Leclerc concluded.
