Leclerc: Never say never

Leclerc who won the Grand Prix here in 2024, described his opening Qualifying Q3 lap as “close to perfect” but admitted Red Bull and McLaren ultimately had the edge over the Ferrari duo on home soil. Lewis Hamilton will line up P5 on the grid for his first race in Red at Monza.

Leclerc said after the session: “I knew my first lap – I hate to say perfect and I don’t think anyone ever does a perfect lap – but I think it was as close as what I would want to do during a qualifying lap and I knew it would be difficult to beat that attempt on the second timed lap. Which I didn’t.

“When I saw that Max went in front I knew most of the time you do the better lap on the second lap in Q3 and you take all the risk there. I knew I had taken all the risk in the first run, wanted to go for a bit more in the second run but it didn’t work out.”

For a moment, Leclerc thought pole might be possible when his first Q3 effort briefly put him on top. “I have no regrets because I think that’s the place we could have done in the best possible case. But of course when you see you are P1 once crossing the line you believe in it but reality caught us back.”

Looking ahead to the race, Leclerc was frank about Ferrari’s prospects compared with last year’s unexpected victory. “Last year was close to impossible. We did a different strategy which helped us to get the win."

Leclerc signalled a warning to expectant Tifosi: "I think this year is even more difficult than last year in reality, and also the strategy I believe is clearer for everybody. So it’s going to be tougher to do something different. If we win tomorrow, I will be extremely surprised but never say never."

In the other Ferrari, Hamilton will line up tenth after serving a five-place grid penalty, despite showing competitive pace throughout the weekend. The seven-time world champion said: “It’s been a positive weekend overall and, without the penalty, today’s result would have been satisfying.

"The team has worked tirelessly and the tifosi have made every day so special with their energy, which has been pushing me on even more.

“Starting from P10 won’t be easy and strategy will be key, but we’ve shown good pace over the long runs and this is a track where overtaking is possible. We’ll work hard tonight and hopefully deliver a result that makes the tifosi proud," added Hamilton..

Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur summed up his team's afternoon at the Temple of Speed: "Fourth on the grid turned out to be a good place to start last year, but today we did not do it on purpose! You can always think you had the potential to do better but it was so, so close, so tight between P1 and P15. I am happy with the way the team has worked so far this weekend."

Vasseur continued: "We knew that a key factor this afternoon was to prepare the tyres well on the out lap and this was more important than getting one car to give the other a tow. So we take this P4 and see what we can do, knowing that our long run pace was good on Friday.

"It’s a very long run down to turn 1, so let’s see where we are after that in what is a long race, where tyre degradation will be a factor. Lewis will have to start P10 but he has similar pace to Charles.

"We have good top speed because we have been quite aggressive in our choice of downforce level, but as usual in Monza you have to decide on the compromise between being quick on the straights or through the corners. Tomorrow, everything is still possible," ventured Vasseur.

Leclerc is a two-time winner at Monza, in 2019 and last year, while Hamilton has won the Italian Grand Prix on five occasions, four times with Mercedes and once with McLaren. He will be aiming to add Ferrari to his 'hall of fame' on Sunday.