Charles Leclerc says he knew from the second he took to the observe in FP1 that he can be within the combine for his fourth consecutive pole place in Baku.
Leclerc’s weekend received off to the worst attainable begin, with the Monegasque binning has automotive lower than midway into the primary apply hour after which dropping a lot of FP2 to an unrelated steering difficulty. However he stated the problems by no means dented his confidence, which rocketed to sky-high ranges from the second he took to the observe on Friday.
“The automotive felt actually good since FP1 and, truthfully, we barely modified the automotive from FP1 to now,” he stated. “Straightaway I felt completely happy, and the stability remained actually good.
“We needed to counter slightly bit the observe evolution, as a result of there was quite a lot of observe evolution, however the feeling was there straightaway in FP1 although there was not many laps [after the crash]. That didn’t cease us to recuperate after that and to be comfy for all of the weekend.”
Leclerc’s type was so sturdy that both of his Q3 laps would have been fast sufficient to take pole, together with his margin ultimately blowing out to 0.321s.
“It was lap,” he stated. “I simply took slightly bit extra danger in comparison with the primary run in Q3. It was essential to only have a lap on the board after which within the second lap you simply take extra danger and see what occurs. Fortunately I completed each of the laps, they usually had been good laps.”
“Each lap I used to be doing was fairly aggressive from Q1, and the stability was feeling actually good.”
Leclerc is the Baku Metropolis Circuit’s most prolific qualifier, this being his fourth pole place on the eight-year-old venue, however the Ferrari driver was at a loss to clarify why he’s so efficient across the uncommon observe.
“It appears like I’m very constant however I don’t actually have the magic reply,” he stated. I identical to the rhythm of this observe. I’ve been enthusiastic about it, and clearly when you’ve got weekend, you attempt to analyze, however I don’t actually have a powerful reply to it.
“I assume it simply goes with my driving model very naturally. More often than not you must work rather a lot to attempt to achieve lap time, however there I simply really feel good with the rhythm of this observe for some motive. That makes it a very good observe for me. “
Regardless of Leclerc’s single-lap prowess, he’s but to show pole to victory in Azerbaijan, his third-place end final yr his best-ever Baku outcome.
The Ferrari driver’s prospects of changing this weekend stay unclear, together with his disrupted Friday that means he had no time to conduct a race simulation, however the seven-time grand prix winner was optimistic the SF-24 can be as much as the duty of scoring back-to-back victories two weeks after profitable in Italy.
“I didn’t do a lap with excessive gasoline, but it surely’s been a fairly sturdy level of the automotive this yr, so I’m not fearful going into tomorrow’s race,” Leclerc stated. “Clearly we have to get issues proper, so I might want to do a little bit of homework tonight in an effort to prepare for tomorrow, however I’m not too fearful. We are going to do the very best job with our bundle after which we’ll see if it’s adequate to win the race or not.
“It will be good! In 2021 and 2023 it was fairly surprising, the pole positions. We didn’t have the tempo within the automotive to win. In 2022 we had automotive after which the engine blew up, so hopefully the tempo is there and we don’t have something which stops us from profitable it.
“However earlier than enthusiastic about the ultimate outcome, there are nonetheless quite a lot of laps round this observe, and it’s a really troublesome observe, so we’ll see tomorrow. Within the meantime I’ll simply guarantee that I’m doing the very best preparation attainable.”
