Leclerc taken aback by pole position as he expected Ferrari to fight for third row

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc insisted that he had expected Ferrari to fight for the third row on the grid with Mercedes, but the challenging conditions meant that the pecking order was no longer decisive.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc delivered an excellent final lap to take second on the grid for today's Belgian Grand Prix. His result will become the pole position after Max Verstappen's penalty.

Leclerc commented: “It’s good. I mean I definitely did not expect that this weekend. Obviously with the tricky conditions we could do something above our expectations – it’s a good day for the team. Now we need to focus on tomorrow and see what will happen whenever the rain is gone.”

He continued: “I think without this rain probably P5 was the position we were fighting for with the Mercedes especially. Obviously with the rain it helped us a little bit, but I’m not going to complain.

“I’m really happy… I’m very happy with the lap in Q3 and it’s good to be back on the front part of the grid, but now we’ve got to finalise that tomorrow.”

”It’s not the easiest first place to keep on the first lap here, but honestly I will see,” he said. “Every start is different and once I’ll be in the car tomorrow through Eau Rouge I’ll decide what’s the best thing I can do, but obviously I’ll try to keep that first place.”

On the other side of the Ferrari garage, it was not such a competitive Q3 phase for Carlos Sainz, who had to settle for P8, which becomes P7 after Verstappen’s penalty.

"I cannot be happy with the end result today because I was fast during the entire session and I didn’t extract the maximum out of the last set of tyres in Q3. Immediately into turn 1 I felt I didn't have the same grip as I had during the previous runs and the entire lap was a struggle. I need to understand what I did differently to have such low grip.

"As for tomorrow, the race will be open and the goal will be to gain positions and fight at the front. It's difficult to predict what conditions we will find in the race, but I'm sure there will be opportunities."

Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur sounded a positive note after qualifying, but he insisted that the Red Bull of Max Verstappen and the McLarens will be tough to beat on Sunday.

"We can be pleased with today’s result, as I always prefer to have a car starting from pole... Of course it will be interesting to see what happens between the start line and turn 5, as it can be tricky to keep the lead at Spa-Francorchamps on the opening lap.

"Charles drove a great lap and we got the strategy right, deciding to refuel between the two runs in Q3 and to keep the fresh set for the end to make the most of it in the final minutes of Q3. As for Carlos, the pace was there all through the session, but he made a small mistake at the beginning of the last lap and couldn’t extract everything from his fresh tyres.

"We don’t know what will happen tomorrow, but starting from pole is the first step in the right direction. Now we need to have a good start and get through Raidillon well keeping the lead with Charles.

"We know Max (Verstappen) can still be a danger and that McLaren will also be quick, so we must focus on ourselves, knowing that our long stint yesterday looked good."