Charles Leclerc says his pole position on Ferrari’s home soil at the Italian Grand Prix was a “huge surprise” after failing to match Red Bull in previous races.
Leclerc was the sole favorite for pole position for Sunday’s race as his teammate Carlos Sainz and the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez were relegated back on the grid.
But with Ferrari showing strong pace at the high-speed Monza circuit, Leclerc was determined to claim pole on his own, which he did with his final run in Q3. After being two tenths behind Sainz after the first few runs, the Monegasque set a lap of 1:20.161, beating Sainz’s 1:20.429.
Verstappen was the next to cross the finish line but slotted in between the two Ferrari drivers in second place, allowing Leclerc to edge the Dutchman by 0.145s – much to the delight of the tifosi at the circuit.
Leclerc: Set-up experiments in training have paid off
Leclerc admits his eighth pole position of the season was a “very good surprise” after he didn’t expect to be able to beat Verstappen and Red Bull as Ferrari struggled at the similarly fast Spa.
“It’s a very good surprise today, especially because we were so far away at Spa,” he says. “I didn’t expect to be fighting for pole here so it’s a big surprise to take pole at home.”
“In FT1 and FT2 we tested a lot of things with Carlos with different car configurations and we found different directions that were interesting. At Spa we really struggled but we found a good pace. It shows that we are in the move in the right direction.”
Leclerc confident: “We have the pace to win!”
“I’m very happy with the lap. I didn’t do a good lap in the first run, but then I managed to put it all together.”
On Friday, Leclerc said he was even happier with his Ferrari’s race pace than its one-lap potential, and following his pole he reiterated his confidence that he can finish the job on Sunday.
“Our race pace is strong, the feeling was really good,” he said after getting out of the car. “Whatever happens on the first lap I think we still have the pace to win the race. I think we can have a good Sunday.”
“The feeling with the car is fantastic and I hope we can do it like we did in 2019 [als Leclerc seinen ersten Italien-Grand-Prix gewann].”
Sainz: Grid penalty hurts even more because of surprising pace
Sainz, who will start from the penultimate row after receiving a new gearbox and several Power Unit elements, says it “hurts” not to be able to start alongside Leclerc on the front row.
“I won’t lie. It hurts to start from the back tomorrow, especially when you consider how competitive the car is this weekend,” Sainz has to admit. “I’ll do my best and try to put on a good show and fight my way through the field because the pace is there.”
“But I wish I could be up front with Charles to try and get a one-two for Ferrari tomorrow,” said the Spaniard.
Sainz: A lack of slipstream cost me three tenths
Sainz felt that the lack of slipstreaming on the straights in the final run of Q3 cost him a lot of time against Verstappen and Leclerc: “The only problem is that I didn’t have a slipstream in Q3 and that probably gave me those two to three tenths in the Battle for pole position cost.”
“But I’ll start tomorrow anyway [von hinten], so it doesn’t change my life. But yes, a very good lap, I had to take a lot of risks to compensate for the lack of a slipstream. I was faster on every corner but slower on every straight.”