Leclerc dismisses Red Bull threat but Ferrari frustration aired

Charles Leclerc has dismissed the threat from Red Bull in the Italian Grand Prix, as he also voiced frustrations at Ferrari. 

Leclerc will line up fourth on the Monza grid behind the Mercedes of George Russell and ahead of team-mate Carlos Sainz with Lando Norris on pole. 

Championship leader Max Verstappen is only seventh following a woeful Red Bull qualifying, having struggled all weekend for pace in the RB20. 

Whilst Leclerc believes Verstappen and Sergio Perez will be strong in the 53-lap race, he rejected the idea of the challenge they would pose.

"I think Red Bull will be strong, however, I don't expect them to be much stronger than we are in the race," he told media including RacingNews365. 

"So we shouldn't look backwards and try to look forward and hopefully go and win the race. 

"We will try to have a good start and then use the DRS to stay with the McLarens, which we expect to be very, very strong. 

"It will be a tyre management race, but we all have similar pace."

Leclerc's Ferrari frustration

Ferrari has brought some upgrades to Monza, but Leclerc felt the balance of his SF-24 machine was not quite stable through the three practice sessions, with most of the time loss coming through Sector 1s chicanes.

"It is very frustrating, because we were close, but again, it was not enough, and we've had exactly the same issue since FP1 and FP2 - I just cannot rotate the car [in the chicanes]," he added.

"For some reason in FP3, there wasn't a problem anymore but then in qualifying, it came back, so that is what is frustrating because we lose two-and-a-half tenths in four corners at the beginning of the lap and then to come back is very difficult. 

"But it is the way it is, and we've got to focus on the race, and I don't expect to have as much of an issue tomorrow in Turns 1/2 and 4/5, and hopefully that will help. 

"There are quite a lot of guys who are super quick and that I expected to be in front of us today, but there weren't too many differences in pace apart from Lewis [Hamilton] who had really good pace in FP2, but he did something and was a bit too slow, [qualifying sixth]."