Ferrari star Charles Leclerc: “We’d already expected that at Silverstone”

Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton had to settle for fifth and sixth places respectively in qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix, with the Monegasque driver proving the faster of the two Ferrari stars – albeit only just: He completed the 7.004 km circuit two thousandths of a second faster than the seven-time champion. They will start the race from fourth and fifth on the grid because Lando Norris, who had set the third-fastest lap, has been demoted to 12th place due to an engine component penalty.

The gap to the pole time set by championship leader Kimi Antonelli is a significant one at more than half a second, but that comes as no great surprise, as Leclerc emphasised after qualifying: “That’s much more in line with the expectations we already had at Silverstone. Silverstone was a bit of a special case. Here, everything is back to normal and just as we expected.”

However, the 28-year-old went on to say that he was annoyed by a yellow flag displayed in the pit lane due to Isack Hadjar: “I’m a bit disappointed because on the final lap there was a yellow flag in place at the entrance to the pit lane, but it was positioned in such a way that you might have thought it applied to that section of the track as well. I eased off the throttle a bit and that probably cost me a position. The time wouldn’t have been much better, but it might have made a difference to my position.”

Reflecting on the gap to Mercedes, Leclerc also emphasised: “It’s simply a matter of raw power; they’re just better equipped in that respect. We’re quite strong on those tracks where grip plays the main role, whilst they have the upper hand on circuits that require a lot of engine power. This time, though, they were also very quick through the corners. They simply have a very strong overall package at the moment, and on this sort of circuit we just have to make sure we get the most out of it.”

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