Ferrari's Leclerc Downplays Monza Victory Chances, Cites Pace Deficit

MONZA, Italy -- Charles Leclerc doubts he can replicate his emotional Italian Grand Prix win from 12 months ago without external factors coming into play on Sunday.

Leclerc qualified fourth for Sunday's race, the famous homecoming for Ferrari in front of its home crowd.

He has won twice for Ferrari at Monza -- in 2019 and again in 2024 -- but has Max Verstappen on pole ahead of the championship-contending McLaren drivers starting ahead. Leclerc, therefore, played down the idea of a second straight home win.

"I think on pure pace we don't have a chance, unfortunately," he said. "I think McLaren and the Red Bull of Max were way too strong in terms of race runs. But with the start, with the top speed we have ... it's going to be tough."

When reminded of some of the upset results here over the years, including Pierre Gasly's win in 2020 and Daniel Ricciardo's in 2021, he doubled down.

"Yeah, there are some special races here," he added. "Again, I'll believe in it until the end and let's see what's possible. But let's say on pure pace I don't believe it's possible."

He also appeared to be wary of Mercedes drivers George Russell and Kimi Antonelli starting on the third row behind him.

"It would be great if we are on the podium tomorrow, which as I said earlier seems to be difficult pace wise," he said.

Leclerc had been second, just 0.1s shy of Verstappen's initial Q3 time, earlier in the session but was unable to improve while the others around him did.

Ferrari's tactics raised some eyebrows in the closing moments of qualifying.

Lewis Hamilton qualified one position behind Leclerc but instantly dropped to 10th, having picked up a five-place grid penalty at last week's Dutch Grand Prix. With Monza, the fabled Temple of Speed, a circuit made up of long, quick straights, Ferrari opted against using Hamilton to give Leclerc an aerodynamic tow by driving ahead of him despite the speed advantage Leclerc could have gained in that scenario.

Leclerc appeared to reference this in one answer to the media.

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"I'm happy in a way that I think we've maximised the package that we had today and I think I did a really good first lap in Q3 and unfortunately on the second lap of Q3 I was a little bit in the front with nobody -- or just Yuki -- in front," he stated. "That makes a big difference here so there wasn't much more that we could have done. But I think we did a good job maximising the result."

When asked idea of Hamilton helping Leclerc was discussed, he replied: "Yeah, it wasn't decided that way." Asked to clarify if it had been discussed, he then said: "Not really, no."

He added: "It's something we'll discuss with the team now. It's always tricky to get it perfectly right and Lewis is still fighting to be starting as far up as possible. So we'll discuss about it but I don't think it's the main point of today."

When the issue of the potential Leclerc tow was put to Hamilton, he said it made no sense for his Sunday prospects. "I don't [think we needed to do it]. It's not something I ever did in any of my other teams. Ultimately, potentially end up sacrificing one of the drivers, and I've already got a five-place penalty, so points-wise I needed to be as high as I could."