Charles Leclerc admits he was “quite surprised” by Ferrari’s pace in Australian Grand Prix qualifying but “put everything together” to secure his second pole position of 2022.
Leclerc faced stiff competition from reigning world champion Max Verstappen around Albert Park, and the pair’s battle for qualifying honours went down to their flnal flying laps in Q3.
Verstappen looked to have stolen top spot as he soared to the top of the timesheets after his second attempt, but a faster run through the final two corners elevated Leclerc back above his former karting rival by 0.286s.
Having not expected to be as strong in Melbourne, Leclerc felt he extracted all the performance out of the car when it mattered most.
“It felt good, even more because it’s a track where I’ve always struggled in the past as a driver,” Leclerc said.
“This weekend, we really worked hard. It was a bit messy for the three free practices session for me. I managed to do some good laps, but not everything together.
“In Q3 I managed to put everything together, so it feels great and I’m very happy to be starting on pole tomorrow.
“The car is nice to drive but the Red Bulls were very quick in FP2 during the long fuel run.
“To be honest we were quite surprised by our pace in qualifying, so everything is possible tomorrow. We just need to do a good start and then hopefully we can keep that first position.”
Verstappen claimed Red Bull’s first front row in Australian since 2014, but conceded he had struggled to build confidence in the RB18 all weekend.
“I didn’t really feel good in the whole weekend so far,” Verstappen said.
“I think there’s not been one lap where I actually felt confident, so a bit of a struggle. Of course, second is still a good result but just not feeling that great to go to the limit. We will try to analyse it.
“Probably in race pace everything stabilises a bit, but for me this weekend so far it has been all over the place.
“Of course, happy to be second, but I think also as a team we want more.”
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