Charles Leclerc has credited a minor change as to how he managed his out-laps in the wet as he inherited a “surprise” pole position at Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Ferrari’s recent struggles appeared set to continue as the squad lagged behind its immediate rivals in the drier earlier practice conditions around Spa-Francorchamps.
However, the anticipated rain disrupted proceedings in FP3 and Leclerc capitalised on the damp track as he qualified in second spot, splitting the two Red Bull drivers.
Leclerc was unable to trouble Max Verstappen as he ended up six-tenths down on the benchmark pace, but the Dutchman’s 10-place drop promotes the Monegasque.
“It was a good lap,” Leclerc recalled. “As Max said the rain picked up a little bit at the end of Q3 which maybe there was a bit more to find on the first part of Q3.
“But obviously anyway P1 was out of reach for us today.
“It’s a lot better than what we expected coming into the weekend and especially after yesterday that was a very difficult day for the team once again.
“So yeah the tricky conditions helped us today.”
Leclerc was not situated in the top five across either of the first two stages, but his sudden improvement at the end wasn’t down to sizeable tweaks to his Ferrari car.
Instead, Leclerc has explained that a change to how he approached the build-up laps helped to put his Intermediates in a better operating window to extract lap time.
“We didn’t change the balance that much actually from Q1 to Q3,” Leclerc, who qualified seven-tenths and five spots higher than team-mate Carlos Sainz, revealed.
“I think where we improved quite a bit was to put the tyres in the right window that was super important and in those conditions that’s always where you struggle.
“So this we did some modifications, especially on the out-lap and how much you push and where you push and then I felt more at ease and that helped me for Q3.
“So it was all about fine-tuning the out-lap and putting the tyres in the right window.”
Nevertheless, Leclerc has expressed shock that his final lap in the Q3 shootout was enough to land him second, citing that fifth place was the maximum he expected.
Asked whether this was an indication Ferrari made a step, he responded: “No, I’m very surprised and even when I finished the lap I didn’t feel like it was worth a second.
“I mean, it was a good lap a clean lap and that’s what you need in those conditions.
“And I believe that especially when you get to Q3 in the last lap everybody knows that this is the lap and that pushes people to maybe do more mistakes.
“On my side, it was a clean lap, but not an incredible lap so yeah I’m very happy to be P2.
“I definitely don’t expect that I think as a team today. P5 will have been a good result and today we are P2 and tomorrow we’ll be starting on pole.
“So that’s a good thing but as I said we don’t have any magical solution for the race pace and it will be a bit of a tricky day tomorrow.”
Leclerc is braced to tumble down the order as Ferrari’s true competitiveness once the rain subsides will be prevalent and the Red Bulls and McLaren’s pace emerges.
“For sure if we are looking for tomorrow it’s going to be a tricky race for us,” Leclerc admitted.
“It will be dry conditions and on dry conditions recently we’ve been struggling a little bit more.
“However, the McLaren is a bit further away than what we wanted.
“There’s Checo [Sergio Perez] right behind that will be the main target and then we’ll see how it goes after the first stint but it’s a good starting position.
“It’s also a track where you can overtake quite easily so we’ll need the pace and that will only have the answer tomorrow.”
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