Leclerc took inspiration from Gasly's on-board cameras ahead of qualifying

Charles Leclerc can rejoice, he will start on the second row this Sunday after his fourth fastest time in qualifying, equaling his best performance of the season. If he didn't want to talk about a perfect lap, the pilot Ferrari admitted to having made his best copy possible during his final attempt.

« I was scared because I braked very, very late at the first corner. I still managed to negotiate it well and have a good exit. I thought I was going to lose the car at turn 4 and then I said to myself “I don’t know if the tires will hold until the end of the lap.” “, he admitted to our colleagues at Sky.

To achieve this performance, Charles Leclerc has worked a lot since the end of the last free practice session. He was particularly inspired by his friend Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri), author of the third fastest time in EL3.

« I was very fast at turn 7. I made such a leap forward compared to the last tests by taking advantage of the width of the track at the entrance to the turn and going up on the curb on the right while looking in particular at the camera boarded by Pierre Gasly. So thank you Pierre.

I also managed to master the last corner well even though I was suffering there since the start of qualifying so I'm extremely happy ».

Charles Leclerc also stood out during Q3 by deciding to exit very early rather than waiting for the track to improve at the end of the session. “ I made this decision for two reasons. The first, because I expected traffic at the end. The second, because I was pretty clear-headed and just wanted to go out and do the work. Something I did.

Honestly, I don't think I could have done better going out a second time. So I'm happy with my day ».

Charles smashed it out of the park in Q3 

Then headed to the pits to watch the end of the session! #SakhirGP  #F1 @Charles_Leclerc pic.twitter.com/PByg4duBAU

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 5, 2020