Charles Leclerc let rip with an explicit rant immediately after qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix with the Ferrari driver lining up in fourth ahead of Sunday’s race
Charles Leclerc let rip with an explicit rant immediately after qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix with the Ferrari driver lining up in fourth ahead of Sunday’s race Charles Leclerc let rip with an explicit rant immediately after qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix with the Ferrari driver lining up in fourth ahead of Sunday’s race
Charles Leclerc launched a foul-mouthed rant after qualifying for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver was hopeful of securing at least a spot on the front row, but eventually finished in fourth. George Russell landed pole whilst his team-mate Carlos Sainz also lines up ahead of him. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly produced a stunning lap to get himself into third.
Leclerc, who ended in fourth, felt there was more in the car and made his frustration known over team radio. The Monegasque driver blamed the tyres for his slight lack of pace, which meant he eventually finished nearly five-tenths of a second behind the Mercedes.
The 27-year-old, who was on pole in Las Vegas 12 months ago, said on the radio: “S***, s***, s***. For f***’s sake. The tyres felt completely different. I don’t know why. So much understeer.”
Leclerc last took pole position in Azerbaijan and his most recent win was in the United States just a matter of weeks ago. Ferrari need both cars to perform well if they want to take control of the Constructors’ Championship with McLaren holding a 36 point advantage.
Three races remain and plenty of points are up for grabs. The two Ferraris are ahead of the McLarens ahead of Sunday’s race in Nevada with Lando Norris in sixth and Oscar Piastri a further two spots back.
Sainz has challenged the Italian outfit to go all out for the race win tomorrow, adamant that they need to start taking the top steps of the podium if they want to chase down McLaren with such little time left in the season.
“We need to stay confident that tomorrow we can be fighting at the front even more than today. So if today we were close in qualy tomorrow we might have a chance at going for the win and that will be the target.
“Obviously passing and strategy will be a different thing tomorrow. I feel like today Mercedes were very good at switching those tyres on. If you see in sector one they were flying, they were three tenths up on us, and we were coming back as the lap was going on.
“But tomorrow is a clean sheet, new start and we’ll see how the car is going on high fuel. I honestly think we need wins to beat McLaren [to the Constructors’ Championship]. So we need to win.”
Mirror – Sport
