Leclerc explains his miserable day in Japan: ‘I’m not sure, it felt better'

Charles Leclerc did not have the best of days in Japan. The Monegasque driver finished qualifying in eighth place, only ahead of George Russell and Yuki Tsunoda in Q3 and far behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.

Leclerc already had a difficult start to his day, after he could not complete his qualifying practice run properly in FP3. The Ferrari driver is also uncertain about what happened today as a whole.

"I'm not sure, I'm not sure. I mean, especially in qualifying, there was just not enough grip available, because it's not one of those qualifying, normally when you finish P8 with a car like we are this year, there's always something wrong. You either got the balance wrong, or you made a mistake in two or three corners," he told Viaplay.

What makes it worse for Leclerc is the fact that his lap still felt good for him. "The very strange thing about today is that it's not been the case. My lap, I'm pretty happy with it. The balance, I'm pretty happy with it. Just the lap time is just really bad, and we are very, very slow. So normally when this is the case, it's just the grip available from the car, and the only answer I will have for now is maybe tyre preparation, as it's been very, very sensitive this year."

Carlos Sainz also managed to outqualify Leclerc at the Suzuka Circuit for the second time in a row.

"From yesterday to today, we changed the car a lot, and the result is that it doesn't change a lot. I don't believe that the characteristics of our car are worse on a track like this, because if you look at our long run pace, it's pretty good, but in qualifying we were nowhere. So when it's like this, normally it's more tyre-related than car-related," Leclerc concluded.