Ferrari took the initiative in the ongoing battle for third place in the World Championship in Austin when Leclerc qualified fifth after recovering from a difficult day, ahead of teammates Carlos Sainz and the McLarens of Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris.
All four men then won a place through a starting penalty for Valtteri Bottas.
The only downside for Ferrari was that Sainz progressed from the Q2 on the inconvenient soft tires after failing to improve as he ran the funds used by the other front runners.
“It was a great day. It was not an easy day,” said Leclerc. “But it was a great way to end a difficult day. In FP3 I lost confidence in the car, especially in the second run of FP3, where I lost the rear practically everywhere.
“And then through qualifying I regained my confidence and managed to drive this lap on the last lap. I am very, very satisfied with today.”
Regarding the lead over the McLarens, he said: “It was a surprise because we expected the McLarens to be stronger than us this weekend at this track.
“And that’s not the case at the moment. So yes, we still have a good race to do tomorrow, but it was a surprise for us to be ahead of them in qualifying.”
Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren MCL35M
Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images
When asked by Motorsport.com whether Ferrari at the top was also a surprise for McLaren, Ricciardo insisted it was too close to call.
“I have no more expectations after Friday,” said the Australian. “Of course it’s nice to have a good Friday, but you just never know, and even if we were faster yesterday, you don’t know if track conditions could change and maybe that will work in Ferrari’s favor.
“So I never got too caught up in it. We’re very close to each other on most of the routes we go so I expect them to be there all the time and today they obviously had an extra tenths or two above us.
“But I hope that tomorrow will change as the race progresses and that we can be the hunters.”
“It’s not really that surprising,” said Norris. I think we knew it was going to be very close. After P3 this morning, they looked a lot more where they should be.
“So no surprise, but of course we were definitely hoping to be a little ahead, we had the confidence to be a little ahead of them.
“It was close. It wasn’t like there were such big margins as in Turkey. It was just bad to be behind because we definitely had the potential to be ahead, but we weren’t. “
McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl suggested that Sainz’s tire strategy could give his drivers a chance to overtake the Spaniard.
“I think we should have a good racing car for Daniel and Lando,” he said. “And of course we will try to overtake one or the other Ferrari. It will be interesting how it goes for Carlos to start on the soft tires, it is an opportunity for us. A
“And then of course it will be interesting to see if there is anything we can do to keep Valtteri behind, which will be difficult or difficult because he clearly has a faster car.
“But as you have seen several times this year, there is always a chance.
“So I’m looking forward to an exciting race tomorrow, also a challenging race. It will be interesting to see how the tire management and strategy develop. The goal is clearly to try to move forward.”
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