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Leclerc explains how he will "put the pressure" on Max Verstappen in Miami

15:04, 05 May 2024

byOlly Darcy

Saturday at the Miami Grand Prix was a positive one for Ferrari and Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque driver held onto his P2 from sprint qualifying and earned seven championship points in Saturday's sprint race, and he was also able to finish just a tenth behind championship leader Max Verstappen in qualifying. After that second place in qualifying, Leclerc believes there is reason to be optimistic going into Sunday's race.

Leclerc: 'Confident we took a step forward'

Speaking in yesterday's press conference after qualifying for the main race, the 26-year-old said that the confidence game from his performance in the sprint race, where he finished three seconds off the pace of Verstappen. "We were a little bit closer to what we normally see. However, I also said that Max wasn't really happy with his car this morning in the sprint race, so we need to see how much of a step forward he does tomorrow, being happier with the car."

"But as I said, we did some fine-tuning on our side. We're also confident we did a step forward. So we'll see. But if we have a similar pace like we've seen this morning, then I think, with strategy, you can always put a bit more pressure on, and I hope that is the case. We've got the two cars in the front. So it's a good opportunity."

However, there will be a worry about the track characteristics for Ferrari at the Miami International Autodrome, which caused them to underperform at the Chinese Grand Prix last time out. "It's a little bit of track characteristics. I think there are still things that are a little bit not understood yet," continued Leclerc.

"As in China, we were struggling mostly with low speed, and here there are quite a few low-speed corners, but we seem to be stronger, so we'll look into it and try to understand. But we've got two very good examples, and I'm sure that we'll manage to have conclusions very soon."