Qualifying progress more important than P2 result for Leclerc

Charles Leclerc says he is more encouraged by the progress he has made in regaining the feeling for his Ferrari's handling during qualifying than his actual front row grid position at the British Grand Prix.

Ferrari has emerged as Mercedes’ nearest challenger as the 2026 season has evolved, but Leclerc has struggled compared to teammate Lewis Hamilton. One specific area Leclerc has found difficult has been the final part of qualifying, but after securing second place, one ahead of Hamilton, at Silverstone, he says the lap time came to him in a more natural way on his final lap.

“Just by pushing a bit more everywhere,” Leclerc said of where he found more time. “But honestly, the result [aside] I'm actually quite happy with [finding more time between Q3 runs] because that normally means that I know where the limit of the car is.

“It's always been my strength in the past where I get to Q3 and I find something extra for the second run, and I had lost that feeling a bit recently. I've been working very, very hard to try and get back that feeling.

“Today, this feeling was back. But where I'm focused now is to keep that feeling because I know how much it relies on fine-tuning and small details. But I feel like today we've done a step forward.”

Explaining why he felt his qualifying form had been inconsistent at times, Leclerc says specific car issues were not the only reason, following a challenging period with his brakes.

“My driving style is quite aggressive, which seemed to work quite well at the beginning of the year, but recently, for one reason or another, it was just incredibly difficult to put things together," he acknowledged. “It's true also that we've had two or three races where I was struggling with some particulars on the car. But even since then, it was just very difficult. It wasn't coming as… easy is not the word, because it's never easy, but as natural as it should in qualifying.

“But today, we did quite a few changes from yesterday's Sprint qualifying and the Sprint race. I felt more at ease, but it's only a small part of the job. Tomorrow, we've got a very long race ahead and I'm looking forward to show the progress as well in the race.”