“Qualifying isn’t everything” says Leclerc after third Monaco pole in four years · RaceFans

Charles Leclerc says Ferrari must convert his latest Monaco Grand Prix pole position into victory having failed to do so twice before.

He set pole position for the 2021 and 2022 races but won neither. Leclerc failed to start the former after suffering a pre-race technical problem, and a tactical error by his team left him fourth two years ago.

Leclerc has been the driver to beat at his home track this weekend and claimed pole position by a tenth of a second from Oscar Piastri. “The feeling after a qualifying lap is always very, very special here,” said the Ferrari driver. “So I’m really, really happy about the lap. The excitement is so high, it feels really good.”

However his thoughts quickly turned to the challenge of turning his latest pole position in Monaco into his first victory in the principality.

“I know, more often than not, in the past, qualifying is not everything. As much as it helps a lot for Sunday’s race, we need to put everything together coming the Sunday.

“In the past years we didn’t manage to do so. But we are a strong team. We are in a stronger position and I’m sure we can achieve great things tomorrow and obviously the win is the target.”

Leclerc said his best chance of victory will be if his team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr, who qualified third, is able to pass Piastri at the start.

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“I need a good launch off the grid and then once we do that, then hopefully Carlos can have a great start and follow me into turn one and be one and two,” he said. “And if we are one-two we can manage that as a team. That would be the perfect scenario. But whatever happens, we just need to bring that victory home.”

Sainz admitted his team mate had been hard to match at his home track but was pleased to close the gap after lagging off the pace yesterday.

“I think overall it was an improvement for me,” he said. “I’ve been struggling all weekend with the confidence I’m feeling with the car so overall to step it up and be P3 was a step forward.

“Obviously not entirely happy because I wish I could have been fighting for pole position. But the truth is that Charles has been doing an outstanding job, the car has been amazing all this weekend and he managed to extract the most of it and I’m happy for him.”