Ferrari’s customer team, Alfa Romeo, enjoyed a superb qualifying run ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix which left Charles Leclerc in disbelief after he initally questioned their capabilities
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was left stunned after witnessing how quick Alfa Romeo were during qualifying ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu superbly bested both Ferrari drivers in qualifying on Saturday, whizzing around the Budapest track to take fifth place on the grid. A shocked Leclerc only managed to gain sixth, ahead of Alfa Romeo’s other driver, Valtteri Bottas, while Carlos Sainz failed to reach Q3 in the second Ferrari car.
Guanyu’s rapid performance – notably with no new upgrades to the car ahead of this weekend’s GP – left Leclerc and co stunned, as the Monegasque driver declared: “They were very strong. Yesterday, the team showed me the simulations of what we think they will be like and honestly they were all right, the simulation ahead of today.
“Yesterday, I was like, ‘I think there might be something wrong in that, it might be a mistake’ and they proved me wrong today because the team expected it. It’s very difficult to understand because of my knowledge, I haven’t checked, but I don’t think they had any particularly big upgrades for this weekend.