Charles Leclerc: I didn’t expect to win pole

The Ferrari drivers occupied the entire front row in Mexico City, but unanimously admitted after qualifying that such high results were a pleasant surprise for them.

Charles Leclerc (1st): “We definitely didn’t expect to be able to show such a pace! However, we’re saying this for the second weekend in a row, and soon people won’t believe us anymore! (laughs)

To be honest, I didn’t expect to be on pole today because after the third practice session we thought we were clearly off the pace. But for some reason, once we got it all together, we were doing fine, and with a new set of tires we made a lot of progress.

I’m already trying to concentrate on tomorrow’s race, because we’ve already had a lot of pole positions this season, but somehow this pole position still needs to be converted into a good result in the Grand Prix, and that will be very difficult .

But we just have to fully concentrate on our work, especially because we have shown good pace since the start of the weekend. I’m not sure if it will be enough to claim victory, but we will do everything in our power to achieve that victory.

However, I’m not sure if pole is the best starting position on this track, but I’m certainly happy to have won qualifying. But I repeat: we still have to finish the job tomorrow.’

Carlos Sainz (2nd): “To be honest, it was a very strange qualification. I couldn’t get a good lap down all weekend, and the first time I did that was in the last session, and I moved straight into first position, but then Charles dropped away a little faster, less than a tenth ahead of me.

I just don’t understand why I suddenly managed to gain half a second, and on the next lap for some reason the time was already half a second worse. But it is very difficult to find the right approach to the tires; the driving sensation on this circuit is very strange. But when it really mattered we had a good lap, which will put us in a good position to start the race.

However, when the car is fully fueled, everything is not as good as with a small fuel load. I also believe that our car is very fast on new tires, but we will see how everything goes tomorrow and if we can save the life of the tires to stop Red Bull’s attack.

But both our cars start from the front row and this gives us a good lead, so we will give it a try.”