Double poleman Charles Leclerc says he'll will pull out the stops and "go for it" in Baku in both today's Sprint event and in Sunday's Grand Prix. But can the Ferrari driver vanquish the bulls?
After topping the timesheets in Friday's qualifying session, Leclerc kept Ferrari ahead after leading Saturday's Sprint Shootout.
It was an eventful ending however for the Monegasque in SQ3, with his final effort concluding in the barrier which brough out the red flag and signaled the end of the session.
Fortunately, Leclerc's first flyer had already put him out of reach of his Red Bull pursuers, Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.
"With the Softs, it was a little bit tricky," admitted Leclerc after the frantic session. "You get into Q3 and you haven’t driven on the tyres since yesterday.
"It’s not a long time ago but the conditions are very different, so it w
as behaving much differently.
"The rear overheated on the second lap, I tried to push a bit more to gain a little bit of lap time as I was behind my first best lap time.
"I lost it in Turn 5, it doesn’t have any consequence on qualifying. I don’t know about Carlos [Sainz] behind me, it’s a shame if he was improving.
"Happy with the first lap and now we have to confirm that in the race."
Leclerc's pole positions in Baku much needed pair after the dismal start to his 2023 campaign suffered by the Scuderia driver.
Leclerc now has two chances to try and pull off a win. But success in Azerbaijan against a dominant Red Bull team remains a tall order according to the five-time Grand Prix winner.
"We will go for it," he said. "We need to also be realistic. Up until now, we have been on the back foot, in the races especially.
"The Red Bulls seem to be a step ahead. So we’ll see how it is, hopefully we’ll have a good surprise.
"I think we improved the car quite a bit but today we will have more of an answer in the race to see where we are compared to them.
"I will do everything for it, we are here for that. Ferrari needs to be on top and I will do absolutely everything to win."
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