Charles Leclerc missed out on pole position for the Dutch Grand Prix primarily thanks to time lost in the middle sector in Turns 9 and 10 – a trouble spot for him throughout the Zandvoort weekend.
Leclerc was just 0.021 seconds slower than Max Verstappen in Q3 and set the fastest time in the first and last sectors on his final lap. But he gave away 0.178s compared to his own first-run pace in sector two, which swung the pole fight in the Red Bull driver’s favour.
Leclerc was fractionally ahead of Verstappen on pace entering the Turn 9 right-hander and was around half-a-second up on Verstappen’s first run at this point. The team told him over the radio after he reached parc ferme that he lost one tenth in the Turn 10 left-hander.
The onboard footage showed Leclerc marginally ahead of Verstappen entering the Turn 9 right-hander before having to correct in the exit phase, which cost him some ground. He then struggled with time-sapping understeer at Turn 10, which led to the rear being unsettled and out of shape in the exit phase.
“You are always targeting to be on pole and looking at my lap in Turn 10, I did a mistake,” said Leclerc, when asked if he was frustrated to miss out on pole position thanks to time lost in the second sector.
“But apart from that, to be honest, looking at the gap with Max today, I did not expect that coming into Q3 after the Q1 and Q2 that we had, which was much more tricky.
“But at the end in Q3, the car felt quite good and I could push. I haven’t been completely at ease with the balance of the car for three races on the quali runs. But today felt a bit of a step better.”
Asked to elaborate on his error, Leclerc cited the tailwind as making that part of the lap difficult and playing a part in what he described as losing the rear in reference to the rear being unsettled on the exit of Turn 10.
He attempted to downplay missing out on stringing together the ideal lap when asked about it in the post-qualifying press conference, although his frustration was clear over the radio.
“I’m sure nobody did the perfect lap, especially in these conditions,” said Leclerc.
“Turns 9 and 10 are two extremely tricky corners with a tailwind there and they are much more affected than anywhere else on track.
“So it was very, very tricky and with the balance of my car I struggled quite a bit in Turn 10 and I lost the rear. I lost like a tenth or something.
“So yeah, looking at it, if you do the perfect lap you can get pole. But on the other hand, I’m sure Max and Carlos didn’t do the perfect lap either. So the end result is that we are second today.”
Leclerc couldn’t offer any reasons for why the Ferrari proved to be stronger than expected in qualifying.
But he did say he was confident for the race given he has generally been stronger on Sunday than Saturday at recent events.
“I don’t really have the explanation yet,” he said when asked about the improvement.
“We tried different things on the on the outlaps and at the end it was a little bit better, a bit of a stronger front.
“I struggled with understeer since a bit now, so we need to work on that but for the race instead I felt confident in the last few races. So I’m a bit more confident for tomorrow.”
