The Monegasque became the first non-Red Bull driver to take a pole in 2023 with a superb effort to beat 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen by 0.188s during Friday qualifying in Baku. 

Having set an identical time to world championship leader Verstappen on their first Q3 runs, Leclerc improved with a 1m40.203s to pip the Dutchman and secure his third pole in a row at the high-speed street ci🎉rcuit. 

Leclerc, who famously labelled hims🔜elf “stupid” for crashing out of qualifying in Azerb❀aijan in 2019, admitted he briefly thought he was going to repeat his error. 

“The wal🥀l was, like… I thought I would crash in that moment,” Leclerc told Sky after qualifying.&n💜bsp;

“I thought the rear wheel wo🌺uld touch much more but I think I just brushed the wall, which was perfect. 

“Turn 2 was then how I wanted to dౠo the corner. From what🐼 I remember from this lap, there’s not much I would do differently. I put all of my best corners in it. 

“The lap☂ before I was not happy. The wind changed and I had to antic🅺ipate the turn more. I focused on that. If you miss the apex, you lose a lot of time.” 

It marked some much-needed relief for Leclerc after his worst start to a season with Ferrari in the f𝔍irst three races of the campaign. 

The 25-year-old has also had to 16🧜8澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:bat away rumours he has held talks with Mercedes about potentially replacing168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史: Lewis Hamilton amid Ferrari’s miserable start to the yea꧂r. 

“It’s good for the t☂eam, especially in a moment like this,” Leclerc continued.&n𒆙bsp;

“The first three races haven’t been easy. We were ve🧸ry unlucky in the first two. Then the incident in the last race.

“And all the rumours around the team too co♏ming here… So it’s good to be back on pole.

“But we also need to remain realistic. We are a step behin🧸d Red Bull in the race, but I’ll do everything I can.”