"We have a great starting position for Sunday": Charles Leclerc hopes for a wet Belgium GP main race as he starts in pole position

Charles Leclerc qualified second for the F1 Belgian Grand Prix but will be starting in the pole position on Sunday. Max Verstappen, who set the fastest time in Friday's qualifying session, drops back five grid spots as he takes on a new gearbox for his RB19.

Leclerc weathered a tricky qualifying session which started on a wet track and quickly transitioned into a dry track. In the final session, the Ferrari driver put in a mighty effort on his final lap to put his car on a provisional pole.

Despite Charles Leclerc's brilliant efforts on a damp track, Verstappen in the Red Bull dropped the hammer going eight-tenths faster to claim pole position. However, he will drop back to sixth due to a penalty, making way for the Monegasque to take the first grid slot on Sunday.

Leclerc was happy with his efforts as he put his car ahead of the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez to secure the best start for the race. After his recent struggles in damp conditions, he was more than satisfied with the upturn in the qualifying position.

"Not a bad qualifying for us, especially in those conditions it's always tricky to put everything together. I've put a lot of work in those conditions as I wasn't really comfortable a few races ago, and it seems to pay off," he told Tom Kristensen in the parc ferme interview.

"We went a bit too early for that last run, but pole was definitely not for us today. Max was too quick but we could have been a bit closer. Having said that we have a great starting position for Sunday and let's see how it goes," he added.

Starting ahead of both the Red Bulls, Leclerc is hoping for a wet Belgian Grand Prix to maximize his chances of keeping the RB19 behind him. On seeing the gap to Verstappen, Leclerc admitted that Ferrari still had a lot to do.

"Happy, having said that there is still lot a work to do to catch the Red Bulls," he concluded.

The last time the Monegasque driver qualified on the pole in the Belgian GP, he went on to win the race during his first year with Ferrari in 2019. It was also the first race win of his F1 career.

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Charles Leclerc explains how he endured the tricky conditions in the Belgian GP

Charles Leclerc in the Qualifying session

Charles Leclerc was the fastest driver on the intermediates as he topped the Q1 session. However, the Q2 session was where his day could have ended as he was running behind Kevin Magnussen, who earlier had a major incident.

Stuck behind the Haas driver, Leclerc expressed his frustration over the team radio but advanced to the final session.

"It was really tricky, I had Kevin also that went into the wall and continued in front of me. So I didn't put a lap in early and then you got all the pressure on that last lap that you need to put. And in those conditions, it wasn't easy, but at the end everything went well." he said about the Q2 incident.

Charles Leclerc switches focus as he aims for pole in the Sprint Shootout session on Saturday at 10:00 AM UTC.