Charles Leclerc says he “had a coronary heart assault” on account of a Ferrari staff radio message about monitor limits on the finish of qualifying for the US Grand Prix.

The opening runs in Q3 noticed Leclerc on provisional pole place, enhancing on his closing try earlier than Max Verstappen simply beat him by 0.005s. Verstappen’s time was then deleted for exceeding monitor limits at Flip 19, however Leclerc admits he was left believing he had misplaced his finest time for a second with the way in which the information was relayed to him.

“I simply had a coronary heart assault as a result of my engineer informed me, ‘Observe limits,’ after which, ‘For Verstappen,’” Leclerc mentioned. “And once I heard ‘monitor limits,’ I punched the steering wheels and my helmet, after which I heard ‘for Verstappen’ after which I used to be, ‘OK, that’s higher information for us!’

“That’s why within the second, I simply mentioned to Xavi (Marcos Padros, race engineer) please inform me the identify earlier than the monitor limits, simply so I don’t get too excited.”

The information meant Leclerc was on pole from Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton on the finish of a detailed session, and he attributes his third pole in a Dash weekend this season to how effectively Ferrari hits the bottom working.

“The automobile was actually good and I feel that is our greatest power once we get to a weekend like this,” the Monegasque mentioned. “It’s a Dash weekend — FP1, each lap counts, and it’s essential to be beginning with a powerful base setup of the automobile. That’s precisely what we did, so from the primary lap I constructed up the boldness with the automobile and I felt good immediately.

“In qualifying I attempted to place all the things collectively. The primary lap in Q3 felt fairly a bit higher than the second lap however I feel there was a little bit of monitor enchancment, and the second lap was adequate for pole — regardless that on monitor we bought crushed by Max, however his lap time was deleted in a while — however I’m very pleased to be on pole. It’s a shock for us; We undoubtedly didn’t count on to be preventing for pole place.”

Leclerc believes the monitor traits helped Ferrari negate a weak spot of its automobile on Friday, but additionally factors to total progress in current races as an indication of enhancing consistency.

“It’s very bumpy right here and the automobile undoubtedly felt good on bumps at this time, which supplies you fairly a little bit of confidence to push in all of the excessive velocity,” he mentioned. “That’s usually our weak spot, however possibly as a result of our automobile was good on these bumps we might no less than match the others. After which our automobile was robust within the medium and low velocity. Once more, it’s very obscure the place you will be going right into a weekend, however for some purpose this weekend we’re strongest…up till now, which is sweet.

“It’s a very good signal. I feel now we have discovered a large quantity because the begin of the second a part of the season. We haven’t introduced huge upgrades since then, however now we have discovered the best way to maximize our automobile and that helped us to be a bit extra repeatedly at our 100%, and at this time is as soon as once more the proof, so it’s a very good signal for the longer term.”