Leclerc after sprint qualfying: "You're as good as your last race'

For Charles Leclerc, a good result in qualifying has been missing. During the last sprint qualifying session at the Chinese Grand Prix, the Monegasque driver could only manage P7 and could only do one better the next day in qualifying around the Shanghai International circuit. However, the Ferrari driver turned those results around and claimed P2 in sprint qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix, setting himself up nicely for the weekend ahead.

Leclerc happy to improve on 'qualifying weak point'

Leclerc did not have great preparation going into today's sprint qualifying session around the high-speed circuit of Miami. He was forced to retire from the only practice session of the weekend after he spun out, meaning that the 26-year-old missed out on valuable data collection.

However, that was not shown in his performance in SQ3, as he out-qualified Sergio Perez in the Red Bull to start on the front row of the sprint race, only behind Max Verstappen. The Monegasque was happy to improve on his recent qualifying performances, saying that "qualifying has been the weak point for two races in a row."

"China was a bit better but we didn't have the car to show that. I did one lap in FP1, so I had to go into qualifying and go flat out straight away. We only had one set of tyres in SQ1, so it was very tricky but straight away I felt the feeling and the hard work I've done earlier in the season, to put the tyres in the right window, have paid off."

Leclerc continued by saying: "I'm happy. There is so much talk now, and you are as good as your last race in this sport. When you have two races in a row, where you are bad in qualifying and you haven't done a great job, people start to talk. So it's good to stop that, so now we need to work on the consistency and try to stay at that level and put the tyres consistently in the right window as I've done in the past."