Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc says he needs to work on his Q3 pace after slipping away from the pole position fight in Canada.
Leclerc joined front-runners Ferrari for 2019, having spent 2018 with Sauber, which typically found itself on the fringes of the Q2/Q3 fight.
Leclerc claimed pole for Ferrari in Bahrain but that remains the only occasion in 2019 in which he has beaten team-mate Sebastian Vettel in Q3.
Leclerc was 0.014s behind Vettel in Q1, 0.063s in Q2, but as track conditions ramped up Leclerc trailed his team-mate by 0.680s in the final shootout.
It has been a similar trend at other events this season, Bahrain aside.
“This is a point I need to work on to try and set up the car especially for Q3,” he said.
“In Q1 the car felt quite good, Q2 a bit worse, Q3 it slipped away and I also did some mistakes.
“I need to understand from where it comes from to just try to anticipate the track evolution and how the car at its best in Q3.
“It’s my fault, and I need to work on that to make it better.”
Leclerc was nonetheless optimistic over Ferrari’s prospects for the 70-lap grand prix.
“We're quite strong on the long-run pace, so hopefully tomorrow is the same, and we can have a good race from there,” he commented.
