Charles Leclerc believes qualifying for this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix will be “one of the most challenging” of the 2026 Formula 1 season as drivers adapt to the new Madrid circuit. The Ferrari driver is relishing the challenge posed by The Madring, which has replaced Barcelona as the host of the Spanish Grand Prix.
The track is a high-commitment street circuit featuring 22 corners, including the 13.5-degree banked La Monumental curve. “The track is very exciting. It's very exciting, it's very challenging, and it's a street track as well,” Leclerc said. “So these are the tracks that I normally quite enjoy, and there's no exception to that. It was really nice to be driving on this new track.”
With overtaking expected to be extremely difficult, Leclerc predicts that Saturday’s qualifying session will be the key moment of the weekend. “Qualifying is for sure going to be the key moment of the weekend,” he added. “Because particularly in FP2, I tried to overtake, but even with the large pace delta, it was extremely difficult or impossible to overtake. So most of the performance this weekend will be based on the qualifying.”
Leclerc finished third and second in FP1 and FP2 respectively, 0.459s and 0.113s off Mercedes pacesetters George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. Despite Mercedes’ strong showing, the Ferrari man remains focused on his own programme. “The feeling was pretty good, but it's true that Mercedes seems to be strong,” he said. “However, we don't really focus on what P1 says today because we don't know what the others are doing with their run plan. It was all about trying to maximise laps on the new track, to try and make sure that we have as many data as we want, and for us to be also at ease with the track coming tomorrow in qualifying.”
The tight and twisty nature of the Madrid circuit, combined with its combined brake-and-turn corners, means that any mistake could be costly. Russell has labelled it a “very high risk circuit”, but Leclerc sees it as an exciting challenge. “There's still a lot of work to be done, and I expect it to be one of the most challenging qualifying sessions of the year, being such a commitment track,” he explained.
With grid position set to be crucial, Leclerc and Ferrari will be pushing hard to extract the maximum from their package in qualifying. “But I think we did a good work today, and we'll see tomorrow in qualifying,” he concluded.
Baca Juga
Balapan F3 perdana di Madring didominasi Theophile Nael, tetapi minim overtaking memicu kekhawatiran jelang Grand Prix Spanyol F1 di Madrid.
Charles Leclerc sebut kualifikasi GP Spanyol 2026 di sirkuit baru Madrid sebagai salah satu yang paling menantang. Simak analisis dan komentarnya.
Pirelli sebut La Monumental Madrid tikungan terberat F1 dengan beban ban 5,5 detik. Simulasi tim berbeda soal flat-out, tapi belum ada kekhawatiran keselamatan.
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