Leclerc on pole despite “a shitty lap”

The Monegasque driver signed his second pole position of the season this Saturday. He is ahead of Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) and Max Verstappen (Red Bull). Leclerc, however, believes he made a few mistakes in his fast lap.

Published on 05/06/2021 à 16:14

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Leclerc, Hamilton, Verstappen: this leading trio which promises a fantastic race / © Photo Xavi Bonilla / DPPI

Benefiting from a red flag for the second time in a row, Leclerc took pole position in Baku. The pilot Ferrari nevertheless considers himself to have taken a tour which he describes as "crappy" : “It was a really bad trick to be honest. I made mistakes in two or three corners. Of course I had Lewis's aspiration in the last sector and that helped me a lot.”

Not very confident before heading into this weekend, pointing out the possible lack of performance of his machine, the Monegasque driver was rather surprised after qualifying: “I didn't think we would be as competitive as we showed today. I improved before the red flag so our pace is really good and we would have played for pole no matter what. I just hope there is nothing serious for Carlos and that we will score big points tomorrow.”

Overall more comfortable in qualifying than in the race, Leclerc remains measured when it comes to chasing victory tomorrow, especially on a circuit where overtaking is easy: “It will be more complicated in the race as we saw in FP2. Unlike Monaco, you can easily overtake here. I'm going to do my best and we'll see if I can keep this first place.".
The last victory of a Ferrari dates back to the Singapore Grand Prix in 2019, it was with a certain Sebastian Vettel.