F1 | Ferrari, Leclerc to Motorionline: "I never thought I'd get a pole in 2021"

from Monte Carlo, Monaco

Incredible pole position for Charles Leclerc, who will start in front of everyone in Monte Carlo in his home Grand Prix. The Ferrari driver printed a 1:10.346, trailing Max Verstappen by two tenths. In the last attempt, the Monegasque crashed his SF21 into the wall at the exit of the Piscine, decreeing the end of qualifying 18 seconds from the checkered flag, and preventing Verstappen, second, from improving further. Now we will need to evaluate the extent of the damage caused by Leclerc. If he has damaged the gearbox, he will be penalized five places on the starting grid. Charles joined us after qualifying, here's what he told us.

“We certainly didn't expect to go to pole position at the start of this season – Leclerc admitted in the mix zone. We couldn't believe we would achieve such a result, not even before today's qualifying, even though free practice went well, we didn't believe it because we thought Mercedes and Red Bull had one more step, but we did it. The impact with the barriers was quite strong, I had already touched the inside wall in Q2, but not so strong as to break the front right, then I gained more margin in Q3 in the first attempt, while in the last attempt I tried to giving everything, but it was too much. Worried about gearbox damage? Yes sure. We still don't know the extent of the damage, it's too early."