Sauber’s Charles Leclerc together with teammate Marcus Ericsson already made headlines with their performance in qualifying of the 2018 Formula 1 French Grand Prix weekend.
While Ericsson made it to Q2, Leclerc bettered it with a Q3 performance. Not only did he make it in, but managed to beat Haas’ Kevin Magnussen as well as Romain Grosjean – although the former got held up, while the latter crashed out.
Even then, after the issues the team faced on Friday which included a fiery incident for Ericsson needing a brand new chassis, the Swiss made big strides to finish eighth and 15th respectively, beating some stronger midfield teams.
For Leclerc, he felt like it was a win and his ‘best recovery’ from one day’s work to another. “It feels like a victory,” he said with a smile. “It is incredible, [the] best recovery of my career from one day to another.
“It is crazy – yesterday was a very bad day for us and today we managed to go into Q3. I went to bed very late because I worked quite a lot with the engineers to find out what were the issues – they have been very good to identify the exact issues.
“It paid off [as well]. It is a combination of the team work and also myself working with them, we managed to do a great job. For qualifying, there is always some pressure because probably, it is one of the most critical moments of the weekend.
“Its on one lap and you need to deliver, so there is a little bit of pressure always but it is Formula 1.” His performances in the last few races has been the taking point, especially with the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel praising the Monegasque.
Saturday was no different with both repeating the same. “I just saw before I went out that he was…I think he was in the Top 10 going into Q3 which was very, very impressive to see,” started Hamilton. “Particularly with the all the pressures you could see.
“There’s a lot of pressure for him, being here in the South of France, so yeah, really, really good. Really happy for him – particularly in that car. He’s doing a great job with what he has and probably delivering more, which is what you would hope from a good driver.”
His Ferrari teammate added: “I saw only on the screen that Fred Vasseur was pretty happy, so I thought one of his drivers did well in Q2. I didn’t see in Q3 but obviously eighth is an impressive result.
“I think they are still quite a long way behind with the car so I think for him, he’s doing the job. It’s good for him and good for Sauber as well, to be up there. And hopefully for them they have some chance to score points tomorrow.”
The goal for Leclerc is to continue is points scoring run, but he expects strategy will play a key role. Up until now, he has had a free tyre choice but for the first time, he will have to start on used compounds which will be a new challenge.
Meanwhile, his teammate Ericsson came back strongly as well after missing both FP2 and FP3 run. His quick lap in Q1 knocked out McLaren’s Fernando Alonso, but the Swede couldn’t replicate his Q1 run in Q2 when a mistake on his final lap limited him to 15th.