“It just hurts,” claims Leclerc after Ferrari’s worst ever qualifying result at Imola
Having failed to qualify inside the top ten, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc cut a downbeat figure, conceding that it had been especially painful to have such a tough day in front of the squad’s home fans.
Although Ferrari looked fairly competitive in the third and final practice at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the Scuderia recorded its worst ever qualifying result at Imola.
Both drivers made it through the first part using just one set of Soft tyres, although Leclerc and Hamilton had fitted a second set of the same compound, planning to go quicker.
However, there was no need for a further attempt, as the session was red-flagged following Franco Colapinto’s crash. The Ferraris kept those tyres for the start of Q2 with the Monegasque posting a 1m15.604s and Lewis a 1m15.765s.
They then pitted for new softs but neither of them was able to improve and towards the end, which meant that they were unable to get to Q3, with the 11th and 12th fastest times.
On the back of the disastrous result for Ferrari, Leclerc admitted that he had “no words” for his team’s level of performance, suggesting that today’s results reflect the SF25’c current competitiveness.
“On a technical track like this one, everything has to be perfect, and today it showed. It’s disappointing, not just for us, but also for our tifosi who come here to support us with so much passion. This gives us the motivation to come back tomorrow and give it everything.
“I’ll do a reset tonight and tomorrow I’ll fight to bring home the best result we can with what we have at the moment,” the Monegasque continued.
“[I’m] very disappointed, especially at home, at such a special Grand Prix for the team – it just hurts. It would have hurt anyway, whatever [the] track, but here it hurts even more. I have no words about our performance today.”
As for Ferrari’s chances of moving up the grid on Sunday, Leclerc conceded that while the SF25 displayed relatively strong race pace on Friday, the Maranello-based squad might be unable to capitalize on it due to the lack of overtaking opportunities.
“The only thing we can say is that we are sorry for this kind of performance at home and in general. We are just not good enough at the moment and we’ve got to do better.
“Unfortunately this is all I can say at the moment and this is all we are trying to do, is to be better and to work in the right direction.”
“Race pace was strong, but we are starting P11. Apart from if something is happening crazy, it’s going to be difficult, added Leclerc.
