F1 | Leclerc still super: “I love Baku, the time came naturally”

Charles Leclerc is in a magical moment, and Ferrari is in one where it can express its best both on Saturday and Sunday. The pole position obtained today in Baku by the Monegasque driver is a clear snapshot of how the Reds are particularly comfortable on low-aero tracks, but, compared to Monza, the Azerbaijani track has treacherous walls that make the challenge much more challenging.

Leclerc, for his part, has never hidden his love for Baku. Today he took his fourth consecutive pole position on the Azerbaijan track and the half a second inflicted on his teammate Carlos Sainz is the perfect snapshot of a clear superiority, at least on the flying lap.

“This is one of my favorite tracks of the whole season,” Leclerc recalled at the end of Qualifying. “But the start of the weekend was not easy because of the accident in Free Practice 1. What happened did not make me lose confidence, because I already knew I had a strong pace, but we had to recover ground and rhythm.”

“In Free Practice 2, however, we lost more time because one of the new parts we brought had something wrong and in that case too we had to stay still. And that time doesn’t come back, laps that you can’t recover. I wasn’t worried, but we had to recover on the work to be done. The pace was always there”.

Confirming Leclerc’s great feeling with the track were the words of the recent winner of the Italian Grand Prix who, with naturalness, explained how he managed to extrapolate the time that earned him the pole.

“Today in Q3 I tried to stay as far away from the walls as possible. On the last attempt, however, I pushed a bit more and the time came naturally. The car gave me a great feeling and it’s fantastic to be on pole again.”

With Leclerc first and Sainz third, Ferrari could try to manage the race in the best possible way, playing 2 against 1 against Piastri to wear him down and grab what could become the second consecutive success of 2024, the fourth of the season after those obtained in Australia, Monaco and Monza.

“I think today is the best result we could hope for. The even side of the grid has the least grip, so starting first and third should give us a small advantage at the start. Hopefully we can fight our way to the win. It will certainly be a very long race. In the past we had cars that were quick on a flying lap, but struggled in the race. This year we have a stronger car in the race and we can do it tomorrow.”

In Monza, Ferrari won thanks to its performance, but also to perfect tire management. The scenario should be repeated in Baku, in tomorrow’s race.

“Tyre management will certainly be a very important factor tomorrow too. It was also in Monza, but every race you have to reset and that’s what we did. Tomorrow is a different race, with different problems. We will have to manage the tyres but the situation will be different, the tyres will be different compared to those in Monza. We will have to adapt to this too and we will do everything tonight to be ready tomorrow”, concluded Leclerc.