Leclerc expects tough fight for U.S. GP pole after leading Friday

Charles Leclerc believes his main rivals for pole position will have more pace in hand than he currently has after topping both Friday practice sessions at the United States Grand Prix.

Ferrari started the weekend strong with Leclerc fastest in FP1 and again in FP2, with teammate Lewis Hamilton backing him up with P4 in the second session. With an update brought to Circuit of the Americas, Leclerc says it is not a major package but has helped the car begin the weekend in a strong position.

“It felt good,” Leclerc said. “It felt good, but it's really not the gain that I've seen or heard about. It's small gains, but it's small gains that we could still see on the car. It doesn't feel massively different, but it's a small step forward. I think we also started the weekend on the right foot, with a good balance, and I think that is probably the outstanding thing for this Friday.

“I really hope [to keep it up for qualifying], but I also believe that the others will start pushing a bit more their cars as they always do come in quali, and so it's going to be tough, because it's been a very clean Friday on my side. There's of course more performance in the car, a little bit more, but the others seem to be gaining more than us from the Friday to the Saturday, and seeing the little gap there is, it's not going to be so easy tomorrow, of course.”

Leclerc’s pace-setting time in FP1 came after Max Verstappen saw a faster lap deleted for exceeding track limits, in what was one of multiple incidents of lap times being erased on Friday. Leclerc says the weather conditions played a part in making it so challenging to keep a lap legal.

“I did like four today in FP2. Not on the fast laps, I think on the long runs, but it's definitely going to be a thing, and probably we'll speak about it already this afternoon, or tonight in the drivers' briefing.

“Just the wind today was placed in a way that in the corners where the track limits are the trickiest, was also where the wind was kind of pushing us outside. So it was very difficult, because as soon as we will have a small lock-up, we'll lose the line and then it was impossible to stay within the track limits. So it's more that the way the wind was, was making it quite unforgiving and very difficult to stay within.”