Leclerc warns Madrid qualifying will be among the toughest of the 2026 F1 season

Charles Leclerc expects qualifying at the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix to be one of the hardest of the Formula 1 season, warning that the Madring’s unforgiving layout makes Saturday’s session the defining moment of the race weekend.

The Madrid street circuit is making its Formula 1 debut this weekend, having replaced Barcelona as the host of the Spanish Grand Prix. Its 22 corners — including the 13.5-degree banked La Monumental curve — and tight, commitment-heavy nature have drawn cautious praise from the paddock. George Russell described it as a “very high risk circuit” after Friday practice.

Leclerc was equally candid. “The track is very exciting. It’s very challenging, and it’s a street track as well — these are the tracks that I normally quite enjoy,” the Ferrari driver said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, and I expect it to be one of the most challenging qualifying sessions of the year, being such a commitment track.”

The Monegasque driver went further in explaining why grid position will carry unusual weight this weekend. During Friday’s second practice session, he attempted to pass a slower car and found it close to impossible even with a significant pace advantage. “Qualifying is for sure going to be the key moment of the weekend,” he said. “Even with the large pace delta, it was extremely difficult or impossible to overtake. So most of the performance this weekend will be based on qualifying.”

Leclerc finished third in FP1 and second in FP2, ending the day 0.459 seconds and 0.113 seconds behind Mercedes pacesetter Russell and Kimi Antonelli respectively. He was measured about reading too much into Friday’s order, noting that teams were prioritising track learning over representative lap-time runs.

“The feeling was pretty good, but it’s true that Mercedes seems to be strong,” he acknowledged. “However, we don’t really focus on what P1 says today, because we don’t know what the others are doing with their run plan. It was all about trying to maximise laps on the new track and make sure we have as much data as we want. I think we did a good job today, and we’ll see tomorrow in qualifying.”