Charles Leclerc says he is “very happy” to have qualified second for the Mexican Grand Prix because of the power the slipstream offers at the start of the race.
The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez has one of the longest runs to the first corner and Ferrari have a clear straight-line speed advantage over their rivals. Leclerc qualified second on the grid behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.He said the tow will be “extremely important” at the start of the race. “The straight is very, very long into turn one. That’s why I was very happy to be second because, of course, we also have the straight line speed advantage compared to the Red Bull so second [is] a good place to start.”
However Verstappen is under investigation for failing to slow for yellow flags during qualifying, which could promote Leclerc to pole position.
Leclerc doubts he could have out-qualified Verstappen. He went off at turn 11 on his final run after making a balance change on his car.
“It’s never impossible, but today it felt it felt extremely difficult,” he said. “The first run in Q3, I was very happy with and we were still like one tenth behind. I don’t think much closer than that was possible.
“The second run I tried to put a bit more front in the car, which I wanted, and went the other side which created quite a lot of oversteer in the last sector.”
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Jim from US (@jimfromus)
26th October 2019, 23:04
Will be an exciting start with VER and LEC side by side and VET and HAM behind or if VER is penalized, LEC and VET side by side with HAM and VER behind. My guess is either way, HAM is going to sit back and let the kids fight it out on the first lap.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
26th October 2019, 23:48
Poor Charles. How ironic after these comments that he’ll start from pole
The Skeptic (@)
27th October 2019, 0:07
Damn shame. And with a loss of trust between Leclerc and Vettel, will they take each other out of contention?
PMR
27th October 2019, 9:21
one can only hope :)
David BR (@david-br)
27th October 2019, 1:20
The weird thing is we now have a near re-run of Sochi, Leclerc and Vettel with Hamilton on 3rd. So same Ferrari tactics at the start to prevent Hamilton taking the slipstream and Leclerc dragging Vettel instead?! Unlikely…
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
27th October 2019, 6:42
Now Vettel will be very happy starting from second with that tow.
It is gonna be fireworks between those two.
Hamilton and Verstappen second row, probably not so much.
David BR (@david-br)
27th October 2019, 14:58
@jureo It should be a good race, a start with a lot of questions, especially between the Ferrari drivers, Verstappen fast and probably keen to attack straight off, Mercedes looking good – or at least equal – on race pace, high tyre degradation making strategy a big unknown.