Charles Leclerc aiming to ‘put pressure’ on McLaren in Austria after sealing P2 in Qualifying

Charles Leclerc was delighted to claim P2 on the grid at the Austrian Grand Prix following a strong Qualifying performance from Ferrari, with the Monegasque hoping to “put a bit more pressure” on the McLaren pair of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri come race day.

While Norris proved to be in commanding form during Saturday’s session – setting the pace in Q1 and Q2 before continuing that to secure pole position in Q3 – Leclerc found himself as the Briton’s closest challenger, the Scuderia driver slotting into second ahead of Piastri in third.

It marks Leclerc’s first front row start since his home Grand Prix in May, and the 27-year-old was quick to praise his team after the session on a weekend in which they have delivered upgrades to the SF-25.

“I’m very pleased,” said Leclerc. “It’s been a long time since… I think it was Monaco the last time we started on the front row. It’s been a difficult season overall, but the team have kept pushing.

“We brought some new parts this weekend, which for sure made a difference, because if you look at the gaps everybody is super close, so it’s also thanks to the team. I’m very happy with the lap.

“It’s a good start to the weekend. We know that we have a better car normally in the race than we do in Qualifying, so I hope that we can put a bit more pressure on the McLarens tomorrow.”

Leclerc’s effort was 0.521s adrift of Norris’ impressive pole-setting time, marking the biggest pole margin of the season so far. When asked if he could imagine that lap, the eight-time race winner praised Norris as he responded: “Not with our car yet!

“We’re going to work towards that. But it’s not to minimise Lando’s job, obviously. He must have done an incredible lap. I haven’t seen it because I’ve just got out of the car, but I’ll definitely look at it. Congrats to him, he deserves it and tomorrow we’ll try and bring him a tough time.”

It was also a decent day for Leclerc’s team mate Lewis Hamilton, who took fourth to sit between Piastri and Mercedes’ George Russell. Reflecting on his day, the seven-time World Champion spoke positively about the steps forward that he is making in adapting to the car.

“I’m slowly progressing, little by little,” Hamilton commented. “Every time I go to a track I’m driving a new type of car on that track, and I’m always shocked and surprised by the characteristics being so different to what I raced with before.

“So you’re kind of rushing to learn as quickly as you can to catch up to someone that’s used to driving this car, it’s like the back of their hand.

“And then we got the upgrade this weekend which has been really positive, and the team did a fantastic job throughout Qualifying in terms of positioning and everything. It felt like operationally we were the best we’ve ever been, and so I’m really happy with that.”

Pushed on whether he could chase after a podium on race day at the Red Bull Ring, Hamilton answered: “I hope so. I was on for a front row, not pole but a second. But that’s a positive, I’ll take that and try and learn from that. I’ve been having some locking of the rears that I need to figure out.”

The grid slot marks Hamilton’s best in a Grand Prix since joining Ferrari, though the Briton claimed a pole position during Sprint Qualifying at Round 2 in China.