Leclerc 'expected to be battling Mercedes and Aston

Charles Leclerc says he had been expecting his focus to be on battling Mercedes and Aston Martin in today's qualifying session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku.

Instead, Leclerc successfully went toe-to-toe with his Red Bull rival Max Verstappen, and ended up coming away with the pole prize.

Having been outpaced in the sole one-hour practice session earlier on Friday, Leclerc had pipped Verstappen in the first round of qualifying by 0.129s.

Verstappen was back on top in Q2, and the pair were tied down to a thousandth of a second after their first flying laps in Q3. But one last run saw Leclerc come out on top by 0.118s.

"I'm surprised," he admitted the media in parc ferme when interviewed after the end of qualifying.

"We came into the weekend thinking that it will be a great weekend if we are in front of Aston and Mercedes in qualifying," he explained. "At the end we are on pole, so it's a really good surprise.

It's the first time so far this season that Red Bull haven't been on pole for the race. But despite the breakthrough, Leclerc was wary about forecasting success for the team in Sunday's race.

"We mustn't forget that our race car is maybe still behind the Red Bulls," he stated. "So it's going to be difficult to keep the lead, but that's the target."

• Read also: Leclerc snatches pole position for Sunday's Azerbaijan GP

Leclerc added that he was "really, really happy with the lap" that won him the top spot for the Grand Prix.

This weekend sees a revamped sprint race format, with the shorter Saturday race getting its own separate Sprint Showdown qualifying session on Saturday, and the outcome of the sprint not affecting the grid for Sunday.

The changes have also meant that there is only a single hour of practice all weekend, compared to four hours that was standard just a few years ago.

"It's a very challenging weekend overall for us drivers because of very little time to practice," Leclerc acknowledged. "We only had one practice and then you need to be straight on it.

"But the feeling was good from the start, so {i'm] really, really happy," he said.

His Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz had a troubled qualifying and was caught out by both of the red flag stoppages in Q1 for accidents involving Pierre Gasly and Nyck de Vries, as well as some moments of his own.

"Sector one I think I was always tending to do mistakes," he admitted. "But honestly, since the very first run of FP1 I was just struggling ... I was trailing the whole day.

"It's the same car and same setup as Australia, [but] for some reason I was just feeling off with the balance and off with my own driving.

"I was just beginning to struggle quite a bit. In the end, I put myself into even more trouble in Q1 and Q2 by doing mistakes and losing even more confidence with the car.

"I will look into tomorrow, trying to make some steps with my driving and with my feeling, because obviously the car is into parc ferme and if we find something we're not going to be able to do change it.

"So lets see what awaits for me. I'm going to try and do everything I can with my driving, with my feeling to try and improve it."

After struggling on he ended up taking fourth place on the grid for Sunday's start, despite lacking a set of soft tyres for Q3 as a result of his earlier struggles.

"To be starting P4 on Sunday is relatively with how bad was the session [was], is good news," he acknowledged. "It's going be challenging because we haven't run the medium [tyre]."

Sainz said he hoped to get the necessary data on the medium tyres from tomorrow's Sprint Showdown. The new rules mandate the use of that compound for the first two rounds, before allowing soft tyres in Q3.

"Tomorrow in [sprint] qualifying will be the first time we need to be on [the medium]," he said. "Hopefully we can learn in Q1 and Q2 and then push in Q3, and we know the car is good ... The pace seems strong."

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