Charles Leclerc felt there was not much more he could have extracted from his C37-Ferrari in Qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday, with the Monegasque racer making it through to the second segment of Qualifying before setting the thirteenth fastest time.
The Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 Team racer knew he would be dropping five places on the grid thanks to a gearbox change penalty, caused after he stopped on track during final practice on Saturday morning, but for a sixth consecutive weekend he made it out of Q1, although he couldn’t match his Q3 exploits from seven days ago at the Circuit Paul Ricard.
Leclerc will start the race at the Red Bull Ring from eighteenth on the grid, and despite the lowly grid slot compared to recent races, he still has one eye on getting into the points for a fifth time in six races.
“I am very happy about today – P13,” said Leclerc, who was three-tenths of a second away from a Q3 appearance. “There was not much more for us to extract, and now we must push to understand why we made a small step backwards after FP3.
“A huge thank you to the whole team for putting my car back out on track for qualifying. Due to a grid penalty, I will be starting the race from P18 tomorrow.
“It will be difficult to advance, but I will push as much as I can in the first few laps, and do my best to work my way forward in the race.”
