Motorsports
Leclerc: “Happy with my lap, Perez did a great job”
Charles Leclair said he wasn’t expecting the dazzling lap that gave Sergio Perez the pole vault for a few milliseconds for the Saudi Arabian GP, but both Monegasque and Carlos Saint said they were comfortable with the Ferrari F1-75’s performance satisfied.
Leclerc improved his time significantly in his second attempt at Q3 of Jeddah qualifying, holding the position of the second Formula One GP of the year until seconds later Perez completed a scintillating lap he said he couldn’t repeat, “even if they did 1000 laps”.
The RBR Mexican thus took pole position three centimeters clear of second-placed Leclerc, but the Bahrain winner indicated he would have to give it his all to take pole position and simply didn’t wait for the time of Perez.
““The car gave me a good feeling, to be honest I’m very happy with my drive,” said the Ferrari Monegasque. And then I gave everything on my second lap in Q3 and composed a good lap.
I could find a little more [χρόνο] here and there but I certainly didn’t expect the Czech to present this year so congratulations to him. I’m sure Perez did a great job today. Tomorrow is a different day and I hope we have a good start‘ Leclerc concluded.
Saint was equally pleased, explaining the problem that didn’t allow him to improve his time on his second and final attempt: “My lap for third place was pretty good. I got it on pressed (used) tires because for some reason the pressed ones make me feel better these three days. The new tires are difficult to handle for me personally, even though I chose them for the last lap [στο Q3] I had no back traction at all. For pressed tires [ο χρόνος] It wasn’t bad, but Cheko and Charles walked past me for a while, but it’s okay“.
The Spaniard added for tomorrow’s GP: “The fight will be exciting. All four Ferrari and Red Bull cars are in battle, so we will play against each other with strategy and overtaking maneuvers“.
Sophia Jhon is a sports journalist and author. He has worked as a news editor for Sportish and is now a sport columnist for the same publication. Alberta’s professional interests lie largely in sports news, with an emphasis on English football. He has also written articles on other sporting topics.