Charles Leclerc continues to be mystified by his lack of pace in qualifying at the F1 Japanese GP

Charles Leclerc was baffled by his qualifying pace which was not enough to place him further than eighth on the Japanese GP grid. Speaking to on-site media after qualifying, the Ferrari driver felt that prepping the tyres for the timed lap was a struggle.

Carlos Sainz managed to qualify fourth but Charles Leclerc was four places down. The Ferrari duo were split by only 0.104 seconds, with three drivers between them. So far the Monegasque has been outqualified by the Spaniard in two out of three qualifying sessions. In Bahrain, he was a tenth of a second ahead. In Saudi Arabia, he managed to beat rookie Oliver Bearman who had replaced his teammate at the weekend.

The 26-year-old claims he has struggled with tyre preparation and tyre grip in multiple qualifying sessions this season. While he was satisfied with the lap he drove, he was puzzled by the lap time he lost.

Asked about his disappointing qualifying result, Charles Leclerc said:

“Yes, yes, I mean most of the time when you are finishing P8 there's always an explanation for it, whether there's a mistake in one corner, or just a setup, got it wrong and that's it. But today honestly the car felt quite in a good place. The lap felt quite okay, just not an enough grip available to go faster.

“And when this is the case, especially when you look at the sectors, there's a pattern since Q1 that has been a bit strange, which I believe is more related to tyre preparation. But it's not been only once this year. So we'll have to look into it and try to understand what I can do better to get those tyres ready for qualifying. Because at the moment I'm struggling mostly with that."

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Charles Leclerc felt the Japanese GP qualifying was a ‘strange’ session

Charles Leclerc sounded confused on his radio when he told his engineer that his lap time was the maximum he could push the car. Admitting the struggles to bring the tires into their optimum temperature window, the Ferrari driver found it hard to decipher the lack of performance on his qualifying lap. He was unable to explain the lap to the onsite media after the session.

Asked if a session like the Japanese GP qualifying was a confusing one, Charles Leclerc said:

“I knew the lap wasn't quick because I had the delta on my dash. So I knew I wasn't fast enough considering the first lap of everybody in Q3. However, if I forget about the dash and just focus on my feeling I'm like ‘okay this is a good lap this is going to be a good one’ and then you finish the lap and you are nowhere. So it's a strange one.”

Asked if laps like these were the hardest ones to explain, he replied:

“Yes, you have it once or twice in the year especially when it's difficult to bring the tyres in temperature. Yeah, today I don't really have an explanation apart from that for now.”

Charles Leclerc is currently second in the championship, only four points behind Max Verstappen. However, eighth place at Suzuka could compromise his chances of chasing the title lead. His teammate and Australian GP winner Carlos Sainz is in a much better position to chase the Red Bulls. Ferrari are second in the Constructors' championship and four points behind Red Bull after their 1-2 finish in the last race.