Fourth Baku pole not as special as “unexpected” 2021 triumph

Charles Leclerc may have been thrilled with his fourth consecutive pole position in Baku, but he says his first was undoubtedly more special.

“It’s not the best,” said the Ferrari driver. “I think the ‘21 one was probably the best as we were in a very, very difficult year.”

Leclerc took two pole positions in 2021 but did not start from his first, in Monaco, due to a technical problem before the race began. The team had fallen to sixth in the championship the previous year and were in a period of recovery.

“I think we were fighting for P9, P10 that championship,” said Leclerc. “To be on pole here was very special.”

Despite having started all of the last three Azerbaijan grands prix from pole position, Leclerc is yet to win in Baku.

“It would be nice,” he said. “I mean, in ‘21 and [‘23], I think, it was quite unexpected, the pole position. We didn’t have the pace in the car to win.

“In ’22, we had a good car and then the engine blew up. So hopefully tomorrow the pace is there and we don’t have anything that stops us to win it.

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“But before thinking about the final result, there are still lots of laps around this track, and it’s a very difficult track. So we’ll see tomorrow. But in the meantime, I’ll just make sure that I am doing the best preparation possible.”

His success in qualifying at the track has given him a reputation as a Baku specialist. He said yesterday’s effort, which put him on pole position by three-tenths of a second “was a really good lap.”

“For some reason, there’s not that much scatter between my laps on this track,” he explained. “It looks like I’m very consistent.

“But I don’t really have the magic answer. I just like the rhythm of this track. Every lap I was doing was quite competitive from FP1 and the balance was feeling really good.

“So the lap was good, it was really good, but it’s also very difficult to compare it to other years.”