Lewis Hamilton has dismissed Charles Leclerc‘s claim that Ferrari had the potential to secure pole position for the F1 Canadian GP. The qualifying session was an intriguing one where a lot of the decisions that the teams took came down to how they expected the respective tires to perform.
Throughout the qualifying session, there was always an intriguing choice to be made by teams between using the medium or the soft tire, as both had their strengths and weaknesses. Lewis Hamilton put together a strong lap in the end and could only secure P5 for the F1 Canadian GP. His teammate, however, had a rougher ride.
Charles Leclerc was on a stunning lap on his final attempt and went a couple of tenths faster than the benchmark in sector one. The slight error induced by the turbulence from Isack Hadjar led to the driver making an error that compromised his lap.
After the session was done, Charles Leclerc was crestfallen, as the driver felt that a pole position was on the table and he lost out on it. Lewis Hamilton, however, has bluntly dismissed any suggestion that such a thing was possible. The 7x F1 champion felt that teams like Mercedes and others were out of reach for Ferrari, as he told F1TV,
“We were never going to get pole, I think, clearly. Mercedes brought an upgrade I think or I just heard so and congrats to them. Their cars always suited this track so it’s been it’s a good.. happy for them.”
He added,
“On our side, it’s been very very very tricky but I think a better performance than Ferrari had last year which is positive and still going to be gunning for… trying to see if we can get a podium for once that would be.. that’s the goal tomorrow.”
Lewis Hamilton’s teammate feels a pole position was possible
Lewis Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc, however, feels that the Ferrari had the capability to secure pole position for the race. The driver was very disappointed with how everything panned out, as he said,
“I’m very disappointed because I don’t think yesterday had any impact on my bad performance today. Q3 last lap I was putting everything together until Turn Six or Seven where I found myself with Isack [Hadjar] 100-150 metres in front, which is not impeding that’s for sure, but the dirty air on a track like with the walls so close you lose so much and I lost the rear.”
He added,
“I’m very disappointed. I believed in it today. I thought that there was the pace in the car to be on pole. I don’t know if the choice of the tyre eventually would have cost us pole, but it would have been close, so I’m very disappointed.”
Lewis Hamilton will start the race in P5 this Sunday, while Charles Leclerc will be in P8. The duo would be hoping to make progress and target a podium for the team.
alt=”Charanjot Singh Kohli” height=”72″ width=”72″>
Edited by Charanjot Singh Kohli
