Charles Leclerc delighted to secure P2 after a ‘tough’ qualifying at Abu Dhabi GP

Leclerc's stunning lap in Abu Dhabi GP qualifying landed him P2 for the main race.

Charles Leclerc delighted to secure P2 after a ‘tough’ qualifying at Abu Dhabi GP

Charles Leclerc (via IMAGO)

The chequered flag was waved for the qualifying session at Abu Dhabi GP and hence concluded the session. Max Verstappen took his 12th pole of the season followed by Charles Leclerc in second. Leclerc pulled out a miraculous lap and hence qualified P2 for the ultimate race at the Abu Dhabi GP meanwhile his teammate Carlos Sainz had a disappointing end to the race.

Charles Leclerc had a relatively tough qualifying session at the Abu Dhabi GP and was not expecting a P2 finish after the tough qualifying session. After the session concluded, Leclerc’s race engineer informed him on the radio that he had secured a P2 qualifying position.

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The Monegasque was delighted to hear this and expressed his delight as well. Leclerc expressed happiness and accepted that the qualifying session at the Abu Dhabi GP was a ‘tough one’ and subsequently asked about his distance from the race leader’s lap time.

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Come on baby. Ahh, that was a tough quali. How far are we from pole?
Leclerc said to his race engineer

The 26-year-old later acknowledged that he gave his all during the qualifying session and exclaimed that he had an amazing lap. Subsequently, he also realized that he could’ve done better. Leclerc finally applauded his crew and team at Ferrari for their great job during the session.

 I gave it all, and the lap was amazing, but last corner I could’ve done better. We maximized like crazy this quali. Good job!

Carlos Sainz failed to clear Q1 at the Abu Dhabi GP

The Spanish counterpart of Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz saw a very disappointing end to the qualifying session. The Spaniard failed to clear Q1 in the session and this was the first time that he couldn’t clear Q1 since 2019. The Ferrari driver finally qualified a disappointing P16 for the Sunday race.

Carlos Sainz.
Carlos Sainz (via IMAGO)

Sainz clearly did not have enough pace to finish in the top 15 for clearing the first round of qualifying. After a difficult Las Vegas GP, this was definitely not something that the Spaniard had in his mind. Evidently, the 29-year-old will have to work pretty hard to clear the mid-sector traffic at the Abu Dhabi GP in order to secure a decent finish at the ultimate race of the season.

The disappointing finish will also harm the Ferrari vs Mercedes battle for the second spot in the constructors’ championship. Both teams have a minuscule point disparity of just four points. Hence, if Ferrari wants to seriously battle Mercedes tomorrow they need to step up their game and perform at their best to potentially secure the P2 position in the Constructor’s championship.

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