Miami (AFP) – Charles Leclerc offered Ferrari fans a message of hope on Friday after the Italian team were outpaced by McLaren’s world champion Lando Norris in qualifying for Saturday’s sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix. Leclerc, who was fastest earlier in practice, qualified fourth behind both McLarens and Mercedes’ teenage world championship leader Kimi Antonelli.
“We struggled with tires today in the heat,” Leclerc said. “On mediums, we were working very well, but it was not such a nice feeling on the softs, so we have to look at that. We know that we’re stronger in race pace but we have work to do in qualifying. I’m sure we have the pace to get back to the front in the race and we just have to see if we can find a way to overtake.”
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Leclerc added that he was impressed by the big improvement in McLaren with their extensive upgrades package. “Our upgrades are fine, but it’s just that everybody has brought upgrades here,” he said. “We kind of expected this situation where Mercedes is probably still the car to beat, but McLaren made a big step forward. I felt they did not optimize their car in the earlier races, but now they’ve got it together.”
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