Charles Leclerc delighted to be on pole on “one of his favorite tracks of the season”

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was delighted about securing his fourth successive pole position at the Baku City Circuit, a track he described as "one of his favorite" this season. The Monegasque driver was the one to beat heading into the all-important qualifying session on Saturday despite having a stop-start weekend thus far.

The 26-year-old looked quick from the get-go on Saturday and had the answer for everyone on the grid and eventually took pole position by a margin of over three-tenths of a second from McLaren driver Oscar Piastri and his teammate Carlos Sainz in P3.

Speaking in his post-race interview with F1TV, Charles Leclerc acknowledged that the weekend hadn't been 'easy' for him but was happy to get the pole at one of his 'favorite' tracks. He said:

"It's one of my favourite tracks of the season, I really like it. It hasn't been an easy weekend because obviously the crash in FP1. But it didn't make me lose the confidence, I knew the pace was there," LeClerc said.

"In FP2 we had a problem with a new part on the car and we lost another half an hour and we didn't recover those laps, but the pace was always there. In qualifying, it was all about trying to stay away from the walls, and then in that last lap I went for it a bit more and the lap time came very nice. The car felt really good, everything felt great and it's amazing to be on pole," he added.

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Charles Leclerc previews the main race on Sunday in Baku

Charles Leclerc said that he was optimistic about his chances of getting a race win on Sunday as the team would start P1 and P3 and take some crucial strategic calls.

During the same post-race interview, LeClerc talked about having a relatively stronger car this season and working alongside Carlos Sainz to get the best possible result in Baku tomorrow.

"First and third is where you want to start and hopefully we can play a team game tomorrow to win the race. In the past we have struggled in the race, this year we have a stronger race car so I hope that we can finally make it tomorrow," LeClerc said.

Charles Leclerc will aim for back-to-back wins for the first time in his racing career as he won the Italian Grand Prix earlier in the month. With Lando Norris starting behind him in the main race, there is a possibility that he might close the gap to the McLaren driver in the driver's championship.