"I didn't deserve to be on pole" - Charles Leclerc bashes himself despite taking P3 at 2022 F1 British GP qualifying

Despite having extremely strong form amidst the tricky conditions at Silverstone, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc lost out on the pole position in Saturday's qualifying session to teammate Carlos Sainz.

In a post-qualifying media interaction, the Monegasque said that he believed he did not "deserve to be on pole," given his spin on the very last lap, whilst praising his teammate's impressive drive. He said:

“I am (disappointed) but happy for Carlos [Sainz], he did a great job today. I spun on that last lap, I knew it was the lap where I had to put everything together and I didn’t as a driver, so I didn’t deserve to be on pole.’’

He added:

“P3 is still a good position to start in for tomorrow’s race and hopefully we can put everything together and come back.’’

Charles Leclerc will be starting the 2022 British Grand Prix from the second row of the grid, along with Red Bull's Sergio Perez in fourth.

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Charles Leclerc remains confident about title prospects in the 2022 F1 season

Charles Leclerc, who had an incredibly strong start to the season and led the championship standings for quite some time, has not had the same kind of luck over the past few races. This has left him all the way in third, behind both the Red Bull drivers in the Driver Standings. Despite this, the Monegasque still has faith in Ferrari and the team's ability to recover and take back the lead in the coming weeks. He said:

“It’s been a tough time for the team but I think the way we have worked since the beginning of the season has been extremely good. So this we don’t have to change. Then of course, there has been some reliability problems that we need to fix as quickly as possible and on that, again, I trust fully the team to get on top of these things as quickly as it can be done.”

Charles Leclerc added:

“So in the last four or five races, it became much more difficult, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. And I still believe in it as much as I did five races ago. It’s going to be more difficult, but anything is possible.”

Ferrari's reliability issues have been a significant cause for concern, costing the team big championship points in its battle against Red Bull, who are currently leading the Constructor Standings with a massive 76-point advantage over the Scuderia. It will be interesting to see whether the Maranello-based team can change things around in time.