Charles Leclerc is optimistic that Ferrari will be in the mix to secure pole position for Formula 1’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix but expects a close challenge at the top.
Leclerc has been a renowned one-lap specialist since he broke through into the top flight and is in the midst of an impressive run of six consecutive front-row starts.
The Monegasque driver fell three-tenths adrift of Max Verstappen’s benchmark last week in Bahrain, but his quicker effort in Q2 had wound up as the best overall lap.
Leclerc ended the sole representative practice session run in twilight conditions in Saudi Arabia in fourth place, 0.353s down on Fernando Alonso’s pacesetting time.
With the margins appearing close once again as one second covered the top 14 drivers in FP2, Leclerc believes a clean run will be pivotal to securing grid position.
While Leclerc admits that the Maranello-based outfit must improve overnight, he believes delivering a clean qualifying will be more pivotal in deciding the starting grid.
the grid will be settled by which drivers deliver a clean lap.
“Feeling okay,” Leclerc reflected. “I mean, there’s still quite a bit of work to do. Everybody seems quite close, even though Aston looks really strong for now.
“But yeah, I believe that whenever we will go all in qualifying configurations, it will be all about the person that maximized their package.
“So we need to make sure that we do a step forward from today to tomorrow. We did all the tests we wanted today, so let’s see where we are tomorrow.”
Leclerc, who admitted that street tracks are his favourite ahead of the weekend, has qualified in second place on his previous two visits to the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
Asked whether Ferrari was in contention for pole, he replied: “Well, pole position is always difficult to know, but I think we are all pretty close, so my bet now would be yes.”
Leclerc pointed out that Aston Martin also began the Bahrain weekend on a strong note before the Silverstone squad’s competitiveness tailed off as its rivals ramped up.
“I don’t know, they were really strong on the Thursday as well in Bahrain,” Leclerc said in relation to Aston Martin’s impressive nascent pace.
“So I hope that is the same here and that tomorrow they do a bit of a step back and are more aligned with everybody else. For now they seem to have the upper hand.
“But I believe that from tomorrow onwards I think we should all be very close.”
