Photo: RacePictures

Leclerc ‘not happy’ as Ferrari take backward step in Brazil

10:24, 08 Nov

byBen Winship

Ferrari were off the pace in Friday’s sprint qualifying and have so far struggled to bring their strong Mexico performance into Interlagos.

“I’m not happy. The car was very slow today.”

- Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc lines up a lowly P8 while teammate Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in SQ2 and starts P11.

Hamilton was also called to the stewards after the session for failing to slow under yellow flags when making his way past the scene of Leclerc’s spun Ferrari. He received a reprimand and retained his P11 starting position.

Pace to find

After back-to-back podiums in the United States and Mexico, the Scuderia appear to have taken a step back at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace.

Speaking to F1TV after the sprint qualifying session Leclerc said: “I’m not happy. The car was very slow today.

“It didn’t feel that bad but we are slow so we have got something to work on to try and to improve on for tomorrow.

“Unfortunately my first lap in SQ3 was pretty good, I had a rejected downshift in the last straight so it cost like a tenth and a half.

“It wouldn’t have been much better, I think maybe P7 but a tough weekend so far.”

Sebastian Vettel pays a visit to his former Ferrari team in Brazil - Photo: RacePictures

As Brazil is a sprint weekend, teams have only had one practice session to set up the car before the competitive weekend starts with sprint qualifying.

A cyclone warning for the Sao Paulo region on Saturday threatens to disrupt the schedule for the sprint race and race qualifying and could likely mean that Ferrari get no more dry running to better understand their Friday pitfalls.

The weather is expected to ease into Sunday’s race.

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