Charles Leclerc: Ferrari have no “magical solution” as “tricky” race predicted

Charles Leclerc has downplayed Ferrari’s chances of hanging onto the lead of the Belgian Grand Prix after inheriting pole position from Max Verstappen.

Leclerc put together a great final lap in Q3 to pip Sergio Perez to second behind Verstappen.

However, Leclerc will start Sunday’s race at Spa-Francorchamps from pole position due to an engine penalty for Verstappen.

Leclerc started last year’s race in the lead - also inheriting pole from Verstappen - but lost out to Perez at the start.

Without the wet conditions, Leclerc feels fifth would have been a good result for Ferrari.

Speaking after qualifying at Spa, where Crash.net are present in the paddock, he said: “No, I'm very surprised. And actually, even when I finished the lap, I didn't feel like it was worth a second place. I mean, it was a good lap, a clean lap, and that's what you need in those conditions.

“And I believe that especially when you get to Q3 in the last lap, everybody knows that this is the lap, and that pushes people to maybe do more mistakes. On my side, it was a clean lap, but not an incredible lap. So yeah, I'm very happy to be P2 but I definitely did not expect that.

“I think as a team today P5 will have been a bit of a good result and today we are P2 and tomorrow we will be starting on pole. So that's a good thing. But as I said we don't have any magical solution for the race pace and it will be a bit of a tricky day tomorrow.”

Since winning the Monaco Grand Prix back in May, Ferrari have struggled for form.

Bouncing has been at the core of Ferrari’s problems, with an upgrade introduced in Barcelona making the issue worse.

Leclerc revealed that had qualifying been dry, it would have likely impacted Ferrari again.

“Today, it was fine. But obviously, in wet conditions, it's always a little bit less of an issue,” he added. “Yesterday, we struggled a bit more with it. But I don't expect this to be an issue tomorrow during the race.

“So this is a positive. So yeah. But if it was a dry quali, I would have expected it to be a bit more of a struggle for us.”