“It’s going to be difficult”: Charles Leclerc on defending lead from Max Verstappen in Miami
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As we are heading towards the fifth race in the F1 2022 schedule, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz of Scuderia Ferrari have once again made the best of their opportunities and grabbed a wonderful front-row lockout as Max Verstappen’s Red Bull faltered towards the end of Q3 on Friday. In Imola, Charles’ one mistake cost him many places as the Monegasque plummeted to P6 from the lead of the race. But now, Charles Leclerc wants to redeem his position and win the race at Miami.
In the four races that have happened by now, Ferrari have secured two pole positions and two race wins while Red Bull have also secured the same result. Charles Leclerc wishes to make sure the balance is tilted towards his advantage by claiming a third race win in the first-ever Miami Grand Prix. He claimed a third pole for himself on Saturday, and his teammate was right behind him, scoring a P2 position by driving thunderously past their rival drivers from Red Bull.
While Verstappen was plagued by yet more reliability issues on Friday, the engineers at Christian Horner’s team have worked to make sure the Dutchman has a fast car to drive on Sunday in Miami. And this is what has made pole-sitter Charles Leclerc a bit anxious because he knows holding off the strong pair of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez is going to be a tough job.
Charles Leclerc talks about how he knows defending his position against Max will be tough
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The neck-to-neck fight between Red Bull and Ferrari are more fierce than ever now, as both teams will try their level best to make sure they gain the precious Championship points. With tension running this high in both the teams, the Miami Grand Prix will start with teammates Charles and Carlos in the front row, and teammates Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez right behind them.
Reigning World Champion Max Verstappen will leave no stone unturned to make sure he can overtake Charles to take the lead of the race by launching repeated attacks on the Monegasque’s SF-75. Charles is afraid that staying ahead of Max and Sergio will be tough as both of them are tactful and fast drivers.
Speaking about what he expects to go down in Miami on Sunday, Charles Leclerc said, “If they are close to us then it’s going to be very difficult.”
In the post-qualifiers press conference, the Ferrari driver also said, “But we’ve got this advantage in the corners, which hopefully [means] they will be too far [behind] to then have an opportunity of overtaking us on the straights.
“Only time will tell and we’ll only see that [in the race]. But the pace of the car is quite strong, so we’ll focus on ourselves and see where we are.”
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