Both Ferrari drivers were left unhappy after a frustrating qualifying under the lights at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
After a decent Friday, Charles Leclerc had suggested a top-six finish was doable, and after being P6 on mediums in Q2 that appeared the case.
However, switching back to the soft compound in Q3, the Monegasque was actually a tenth slower, ending up ninth fastest.
“I’m a bit disappointed because I wished we could do something more in Q3, which we didn’t,” Leclerc said.
“We struggled a lot more with tyre temperatures for some reason. We were struggling with overheating in the last sector and that made us lose quite a bit of lap time.
“So, we need to understand that, but happy to have gone through to Q3 with the medium.”
Annoyingly for Leclerc, a three-place grid penalty for causing the Lap 1 clash in Sakhir a week ago also demotes him back to P12 for the start.
“I don’t think it’s that bad at the end because we would have chosen medium if we had free choice,” he said. “So, luckily, we did a good job in Q2, which helps us to start on our preferred tyre.
“It would have been a lot more difficult [starting on the softs] because… well, I could have had an advantage for two laps. But after that, we all know that they are dropping quite a lot.”
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Even with the penalty, Leclerc will still start one place ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel.
“Obviously it is not nice to start my final race with the team from 13th on the grid,” the German admitted.
“The result itself is quite bad, even if I was happy with my own performance on the lap. Maybe putting together the perfect lap would have got me as high as 10th, but no better than that.”
More worrying for the four-time world champion was the seven-tenths deficit to Leclerc in Q2, despite using the supposedly faster soft tyres.
“Obviously it’s a mystery why there’s such a big delta between the cars. I don’t think anywhere in the pit lane there’s such a big delta,” he claimed.
“It was a good session. I’m happy with myself, not happy with the results, but it’s been like this many times this year. For sure you always feel there’s a little bit [more].”
Looking ahead to race day, Vettel admits his single focus is on ending his Ferrari career on a high.
“My plan for the race tomorrow is simply to try and do my best. I guess we won’t have an easy race,” he conceded. “I think it will be special since it is the last one.
“I want to enjoy this race and feel very close to the people in the garage, the mechanics, the engineers, everyone. It will be very emotional.”
