In the qualifying duel at Ferrari in the 2025 Formula 1 season, Charles Leclerc is now 16-5 after qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix in Sao Paulo.
After Leclerc and teammate Lewis Hamilton qualified second and third fastest in Mexico two weeks ago, there were now a whopping ten positions between the two in Brazil qualifying.
Because while Leclerc finished qualifying in the top 3 for the third time in a row and this time, as third fastest, missed making it to the front row of the grid by just 0.120 seconds, Hamilton was already at the end of the line in the Q2 segment. The seven-time Formula 1 world champion will start the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday from P13 – and is basically already writing off the race.
Hamilton with a gloomy forecast for the race
“The set-up was okay. But I just couldn’t get the tires to work,” sighs Hamilton after qualifying. When asked what exactly the problem was, he replied curtly: “Tire temperatures.” When asked further how this could happen, Hamilton replied: “Everything happens in the pits.”
So was it a problem of execution that cost Hamilton a better starting position in Sao Paulo? “I don’t know,” he says, elaborating a bit: “I think the execution in terms of when we went out and all those things, that was fine. It was just that I couldn’t get the rear tires up to temperature.”
In an effort to get to the bottom of the tire problem, Hamilton says the 24-lap sprint race that preceded qualifying for the main race didn’t help. The only thing he learned in the sprint was “that you can’t overtake.”
Hamilton’s forecast for the Grand Prix is correspondingly bleak. When he was asked directly how he was feeling mentally after being eliminated in the Q2 segment in two qualifying sessions this weekend, while his teammate made it into Q3 in both cases, the record world champion admitted that he was “not feeling well at all”.
“I’ve been trying all year, but somehow it just goes badly every weekend. Of course, I’ll get up tomorrow and try again,” says Hamilton, but already speculates on Saturday: “It’ll probably be another lost weekend.”
Leclerc glad that different voting helped
Charles Leclerc sounds completely different. In the press conference after qualifying, in which he took part together with pole-sitter Lando Norris (McLaren) and second-fastest Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), the Ferrari driver said: “I don’t want to exaggerate. The improvement we achieved is only about a tenth of a second, maybe one and a half. But this weekend, a tenth of a second means that you are eliminated from Q1 or get into Q3.”
“I think we did a really good job by implementing everything perfectly from Q1 to Q3,” said Leclerc, who clearly emphasized: “It’s been a very difficult weekend since free practice. We knew that we would have a hard time getting into Q2 and then Q3. But we did everything perfectly. I’m very happy about that.”
On Friday, Leclerc also sounded pessimistic about the rest of the weekend. “I actually didn’t have that bad a feeling, but we’re just slow,” were his words after the sprint qualifying. On this occasion he also said that he wanted to try a different vote on Saturday. Postscript: “I don’t know whether that will be better or worse.”
As Saturday showed, at least on Leclerc’s side of the Ferrari pit, the right adjustment screws were turned. “We changed the car a bit this morning. That helped us take a step forward,” said a relieved Leclerc after the sprint and Grand Prix qualifying.