Leclerc reveals why he wants to be "quite aggressive" into Turn 1

F1 Grand Prix, GP Mexico, Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez

Having secured the second starting position for today's Mexico City Grand Prix, Ferrari racer Charles Leclerc revealed why he wants to be "quite aggressive" into Turn 1

Following a strong display at last weekend’s United States Grand Prix, Ferrari seemingly managed to carry this form over to Mexico, crucially with both cars.

On the back of some strong lap times across the three practice sessions, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton both arrived in Q3 with two fresh sets of soft tires and put them to good use.

The Monegasque grabbed provisional pole on the first runs with a staggering improvement. Although he managed to find even more time on his second hot lap, he did not have an answer to the pace of Lando Norris and had to settle for second place on the grid.

Lewis Hamilton sat out the opening practice as part of the requirement that forces each driver to hand over the car to a rookie driver twice across the season.

Despite missing FP1, the Briton managed to find a good setup for the unique requirement of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to back Leclerc up with his best Grand Prix Qualifying of the year.

Pressed on to reveal how worried he is about the possible use of lift and coast during the 71-lap Mexican encounter, Leclerc said: "Let’s say I think we’re ready for this. It’s always a track where lift and coast is a big part of the race, especially for the people from second onwards.

"That’s why I think the start is so important on a track like this, because when you have free air, everything comes a lot easier. So yeah, we’ll be quite aggressive into Turn 1 if I have the possibility and then manage from where we are. But it's definitely going to be a big part of the race."

The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is a bumpy track, and in addition to that, drivers have to use the kerbs quite aggressively. As Ferrari's SF-25 has not been particularly good on bumpy track surfaces, Leclerc was asked to reveal what the Scuderia has done recently to improve its car's overall performance.

"I don’t think there’s a silver bullet or something that we’ve changed significantly that makes us a lot better now than three, four, five races ago. I think it’s a little bit everywhere.

"Like Lewis was saying earlier, I think the processes and all the small differences make a big difference at the end, and we improved all that in the last few weekends. Yeah, on the bumps, I don’t think this was particularly a weakness at any point.

"I think we had to manage some other things at one point of the season, which now we are in a bit more of a comfortable place. But yeah, the pace in itself is more down to small details everywhere rather than something standing out."