Leclerc reveals he considered copying Hamilton's driving style before positive Silverstone Qualifying result

Charles Leclerc has revealed he contemplated copying Ferrari team mate Lewis Hamilton's driving style following his challenging recent run of form, before opting to stick with his own style and finding a way "around the car".

The Monegasque driver bounced back impressively during Saturday's Qualifying session for the British Grand Prix as he claimed P2 behind polesitter Kimi Antonelli and ahead of Hamilton.

That represented a strong result after a difficult run, with Leclerc failing to finish the Grands Prix in Monaco and Barcelona before coming home a disappointing eight last weekend in Austria. Similarly he could only come home in fifth during the British Grand Prix Sprint, while Hamilton was in contention at the front before he had to settle for a runner-up spot.

Speaking after his strong Qualifying, Leclerc explained his decision making and how he considered following what his experienced team mate on the other side of the garage was doing.

"I kind of had two options," he said. "One was to change my driving style and basically copy Lewis, because that seems to be working very well.

"The second was to keep my driving style and try to find a way around the car, and that’s the option I chose. Today it paid off. I hope it’ll pay off tomorrow as well."

Leclerc will be hoping his uptick in form continues into Sunday's Grand Prix, with the Ferrari man's last podium coming back in March at the Japanese Grand Prix. However, he will hope that the hard work digging into the data will pay off.

"The feeling wasn’t so good yesterday either, but I analysed a lot of the data," he explained. "Little by little, you start to understand the bigger picture of why you’re struggling and what you need to change.

"I went in a direction that my intuition was telling me was the right one to adapt the car to my driving style, and that worked out very well today. I felt a lot better in Qualifying, which is a good thing.

"It’s been a long time since I felt that way in Qualifying. But we need to be careful. It’s very easy to get carried away after a good Saturday."

With Sprint winner Antonelli claiming his fifth pole of the season for Sunday's British Grand Prix, Leclerc acknowledged that it would be a challenge to take the fight to the Mercedes given his impressive form already this weekend.

"They seemed to be very, very strong this morning, so I don’t know whether they kept the same pace or whether we improved enough," he said. "If they did, it’s going to be tricky.

"I feel a lot better in the car, so I just hope that feeling stays with me in the race. If it does, then I hope we can achieve a miracle.

"If not, I’ll still take the positives from a weekend like this, which are the lessons we’ve learned. But then again, the race is the most important part, and that’s where we’ll learn the most."

Meanwhile, Hamilton was unable to back up his impressive Sprint Qualifying pole lap with the seven-time World Champion having to make do with third on the grid in Sunday's race, an event he has won an incredible nine times.

However, he explained that his car didn't feel quite as well balanced as it did on Friday around Silverstone.

"Yesterday I felt the car was really together, really well balanced, and from one session to the next we just kept getting quicker and quicker," he said. "Today I was struggling on the braking. The car was snapping or locking, and it just wasn’t underneath me in the same way."

When asked if he could go after the win tomorrow, Hamilton admitted it would be tricky given the strength of Antonelli and Mercedes.

“I’m not trying to be negative, but the Mercedes is just flat-out quicker," he added. "If we’re not able to get him on the first lap, he’ll just disappear into the distance.

"It’s definitely great to have both of us because that means, whether or not we can fully keep up with Kimi, we’ll see tomorrow. But hopefully we can maybe play with the strategy and work as a team to try to topple them. We’ll do our best, for sure."