Leclerc delighted with Ferrari’s leap in pace

Charles Leclerc clinched pole at the Belgium Grand Prix albeit through 5-place grid penalty that Max Verstappen received, which pushed the Dutchman back to P6.

Nevertheless, the Ferrari driver was utterly satisfied with the result as it is a big step forward compared to the last 2 races.

In the tricky wet/dry condition the Scuderia prevailed and finished the session in P1 with Leclerc and P4 with Carlos Sainz.

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“On the one hand it feels good, because it’s [important] not to underestimate how much I struggled in those conditions a few races ago,” Leclerc said. “As I kept saying during those times, I was working a lot on my driving in order to get better and today I was really at ease with the car.

“I think in Q3 we maybe didn’t do everything right, as we went a bit too early, but at the end it’s risk versus reward. We wanted to go early to avoid any yellow flags, but the track was drying up. We maybe lost a little bit of time, but it wouldn’t have been enough to be in front of Max anyway.”

Asked about his chances of keeping Red Bull behind Leclerc stated that he needs to be ‘realistic’ and expect the Milton Keynes team to be the dominant force again. But he vowed to keep fighting for as long as possible.