Charles Leclerc voices Ferrari concern after identifying key victory-costing moment

Charles Leclerc has declared that Ferrari is "not robust enough" over a full race weekend, identifying qualifying as the moment his hopes of winning the United States Grand Prix disappeared.

Leclerc started fourth at the Circuit of the Americas after a difficult Saturday but recovered to finish second, 13 seconds behind race winner Kimi Antonelli.

The Monegasque driver had topped the timesheets across the first two free practice sessions, and in Q2, only to see that pace evaporate when it mattered most in Q3, where he qualified fourth, two-and-a-half tenths of a second off Antonelli's pole time.

Victory returned to the conversation during the race itself, with Ferrari committing Leclerc to an aggressive two-stop strategy that exploited strong late pace on the hard compound.

It was enough for Leclerc to pass Max Verstappen in the closing stages and claim second, even as Antonelli's one-stop approach from pole kept him out of reach at the front.

Speaking in parc fermé, the Ferrari driver called it a satisfying result but one that fell short of the ultimate goal.

"It was quite a good race," he reflected after getting out of his car. "Unfortunately, we came short of the victory, which is eventually our target.

"But at the end of the day, it was a positive race. We had good pace. The first stint was a little bit more difficult. Kimi went for a one-stop, which was not really on our cards, to be honest.

"But we were in the race with Max, and we had good pace. It was a fun race, with quite nice battles at the start and then later on with Lando [Norris] and Max."

Later, in the post-race top three press conference, Leclerc pinpointed where the weekend went wrong, telling media, including RacingNews365, that Ferrari's qualifying struggles were the decisive factor.

"If you look at FP1, FP2 and FP3, we were very strong," Leclerc said. "If you look at qualifying, at the end of the day in Q3, it was extremely difficult to bring the tyres up to temperature, and we probably lost a shot at the victory there.

"Kimi was very strong, so, yeah, as a whole weekend, I think we're just not robust enough."