Charles Leclerc says he is targeting a “great result” at the Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday as he takes the start from pole position.
However, the Ferrari driver has admitted that he is not confident he can secure Ferrari’s first race victory of 2023.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was the fastest driver during Friday’s qualifying session by eight-tenths of a second, but a gearbox penalty will drop him back to sixth for Sunday’s race.
It will be the second race this year that Leclerc has started from pole position, and is hopeful that he can walk away with his third podium of the campaign.
“I think they’ve got a much better race car than we have,” Leclerc said. “I mean it’s great to be starting first, and I think it gives us a great chance to have a great result.
“But to say that we’ll target the win, I think this would be a bit too optimistic.
“If there’s an opportunity for whatever reason, as always, I’ll try and get it. But I believe it’s going to be difficult to keep those guys behind.”
Ferrari has endured a difficult stretch of races and the mixed conditions at Spa on Friday added a further challenge to the mix.
However, the Monegasque driver was able to deliver the Maranello-based team its best qualifying result since Austria.
While Leclerc asserted that he could’ve executed a better lap, he says that pole was not on the cards.
“[I’m] happier, for sure. I put quite a lot of work in those conditions, half wet, half dry,” Leclerc said.
“I knew it was one of those conditions where I was still struggling with the car, I didn’t have the right feeling in Barcelona, I cannot remember the other races we had, but we had two or three races in a row where we had those conditions.
“Today I felt much better in the car. So this was positive. Still very far from Max in Q3 especially.
“All in all, I think in Q3 we could have done things slightly better, I don’t think pole was possible.
“I mean, I’m sure pole was not possible today, but we probably could have been a bit closer going a bit later in Q3.”
