Leclerc denies Japan F1 grid position influenced one-stop race

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc reckons he would’ve converted to the one-stop that helped him clinch fourth in Formula 1’s Japanese Grand Prix even with a better starting spot.

For the second consecutive weekend, Leclerc’s race prospects were hampered when he struggled to generate optimum temperature in his Soft rubber for a single lap.

However, the Monegasque driver executed an audacious one-stop race to climb from eighth on the grid to fourth, one place behind his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz.

Leclerc had overtaken Lewis Hamilton at the second standing restart and then elected to extend his opening stint to eradicate a pit stop, moving him up to second place.

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Although both Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Sainz overhauled him on fresher tyres, Leclerc retained his margin over McLaren’s Lando Norris to follow his team-mate home.

“Yeah, I don’t think there was anything better to do today, but today I’m very happy,” Leclerc said.

“I don’t think there was anything we could have done better, pace was really good, tyre management was really good, communication was really good.

“However, as a driver you always have to look at the negative over the whole weekend and whether Australia and here race pace has not been a problem, it’s my qualifying pace, which is not something that I have been very used to in my career to be working on my qualifying pace because normally it’s pretty good on a Saturday.

“However, now two races in a row I have been struggling to put the tyres in the right window and this is definitely my main focus now going into Shanghai to find the right window of the tyres and for me to put them more consistently inside that window and then once I do that I’m sure the pace will come back in quali.”

Leclerc believes that his strong opening stint on the Medium compound would have pushed him towards the one-stop regardless of whether he had qualified stronger.

“Well honestly, I think the strategy would have been pretty similar if I was starting somewhere else as the feeling was really, really good with the Medium,” he contended.

“I had done a good job in the first stint, I was really happy with it, [the strategy] probably would have been the same.”

Leclerc, who is renowned as a one-lap specialist, conceded that he was puzzled with his low-fuel struggles as his SF-24 car felt well-balanced around the Suzuka track.

But having had a chance to review the data, Leclerc believes the deficit to his team-mate in recent rounds has derived from not preparing his tyres right during out laps.

“As I said my laps weren’t that bad; yesterday the lap I have done was actually good, but the grip I had available from the tyre was just not there,” he explained.

“This is because I do a bad job on the lap before. It’s very frustrating because you finish the lap and are happy but you are nowhere.

“I’ve got to focus on that, it’s very little differences. However, I’m confident by analysing well the data, we’ve got a week before Shanghai.

“And whenever I focus on something I improve quite quickly on it, so I’m not too concerned but I need to do the step forward for Shanghai now.”

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko had been relieved that Leclerc started further down the order as his race simulation runs through practice had been superior to the rest.

With Ferrari having addressed its race pace limitations, Leclerc admits it has been refreshing to make progress during a weekend rather than dropping through the field.

“I think we are also much more consistent, he added. “Last year it was very easy for us to do a small mistake with set-up and be completely off in the race, and much further away than what we would expect.

“The car is much more solid in the race, which is nice, at least we finish a weekend on a high rather than starting it on a high and being not too happy on a Sunday night.

“It’s good that way, now I need to put everything together on a Saturday then I’m sure we’ll have many more happy weekends.”