Charles Leclerc claimed his 4th pole position in a row, equalling Schumacher’s record set back in 2001. The Monegasque was able to keep the qualifying streak against Vettel alive, by beating him for the 9th consecutive time.

Leclerc reflects on the teamwork that led to the achievement of yet another dominant qualifying result, despite the fact that he appeared rather unhappy about his performance in S3, where Lewis Hamilton managed to set the record time.

“The lap in Q3 was great, apart from when I lost the rear a bit in turns 16 and 17. I’m still happy to end the day with a result like this, but I am already fully focused on the race now.”

“The car was amazing to drive and the team did a great job anticipating the track evolution and setting up the car in the best way. We are just focusing on ourselves and the work we are doing seems to be slowly paying off. On my side, I continue focusing on the negative and working to improve and learn as much as I can” he added.

Charles Leclerc also stated that there is not a significant gap between the two tyres in terms of degradation, although Mercedes have opted for a different strategy and will start on Mediums. However, the Monegasque is mainly concerned about keeping P1 at the start, as the features of the track will make it more challenging than usual.

“Our race pace was good in FP2, which is a positive sign. We will start the race on different tyres to our competitors, but I don’t think that there is a huge difference between the soft and medium compounds in terms of their degradation. It will be difficult and crucial to keep everyone behind at the start, because it’s a long way to turn two. I will give it all I’ve got.”