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‘I had one opportunity and I went for it’ – Leclerc dissects his fight with Hamilton in Qatar Sprint
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The highlight of Charles Leclerc’s Sprint around the Lusail International Circuit was his skilful battle with Lewis Hamilton for fifth, which was several laps in the making amid a crucial weekend for Ferrari.
The Italian team lost ground to McLaren in the fight for the constructors’ title – they are now 30 points adrift – but nevertheless were able to maximise their points in the Sprint after Leclerc passed the Mercedes in the latter stages.
Hamilton initially got ahead of the Monegasque on the opening lap and gradually closed in on Carlos Sainz, but was ultimately unable to get the better of the lead Ferrari and began to drop back.
Over a number of laps, Leclerc recovered to be within a second of the seven-time world champion, and the future team mates carried out a perfectly executed battle as they drove side-by-side around a series of corners.
Leclerc cleared Hamilton for P5 with a masterful overtake
The younger driver came out on top, later explaining that he was “on the limit” as he focused on reclaiming P5 around the high-speed track.
“I was really struggling to get close on the straights,” Leclerc said after the Sprint. “I think we maybe ran a different configuration of cars. Lewis was fast on the straights, I was quite fast in the corners but that was mostly based on car characteristics.
“It made it very difficult to be as close as I wanted for Turn 1 but I had one opportunity and I went for it. I know it’s a very important time of our season – we’ve got the fight with McLaren that seems to have the advantage for now.
“Every point is super important so I tried everything. I passed, it was on the limit but it was fun. Then I had really good pace but with our starting position it was difficult to do anything better so tonight will be fundamental to have a better qualifying compared to where we started today.”
Sainz expected Ferrari to struggle in Qatar
Sainz, who crossed the line where he started in fourth position, also appeared keen to improve Ferrari's qualifying performance in the few hours between the two sessions to give the squad the advantage they need over McLaren.
He said: “Given the tricky start with the very low grip that I had, I think in general the pace was as good as it could be.
“We clearly need to find something more in quali to start ahead of our rivals because overtaking and the pace they had in the race were very difficult to fight them.”
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