Charles Leclerc has certainly been enjoying himself at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with the Ferrari driver having performed better than he has done all season.
The Monegasque is seemingly the ‘King of Baku’ when it comes to one lap pace, given that on Friday he claimed his third consecutive pole position at the Baku City Circuit.
If this wasn’t enough for him, Leclerc then claimed pole position again Saturday morning in the first ever sprint qualifying, putting him at the front of the grid for Saturday afternoon’s sprint race.
Unfortunately for him, Leclerc couldn’t convert his sprint pole into sprint victory; however, he was able to hold on for second place.
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To highlight how bad his season has been so far, Leclerc doubled his points tally after claiming seven points for finishing second in the sprint, with his aim now being on finishing on the actual rostrum Sunday afternoon.
Leclerc and Baku seemingly just click over one lap, with ex-F1 driver Karun Chandhok having shared his view that the Ferrari star is the “fastest driver in Formula 1” currently when it comes to one lap pace.
“I genuinely think over one lap he is now the fastest driver in Formula 1,” Chandhok said on Sky Sports F1.
“His ability to extract extra grip out of fresh tyres for one lap is immense. I think he is the best qualifier we have on the grid right now.”
Whilst he did claim pole for the sprint race, the sprint qualifying itself actually ended badly for Leclerc, after he bizarrely crashed at Turn 5.
Thankfully, he only damaged his front wing on the accident, making for a quick repair ahead of the sprint race.
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Leclerc will be keen to make a strong start on Sunday in order to keep Max Verstappen and sprint race winner Sergio Perez behind, with the Red Bull drivers boasting better straight-line speed.
Interestingly, despite having claimed pole in Baku for three consecutive years, he’s never won the race.
With that in mind, will it be third time lucky for Leclerc, in a bid to truly kickstart his and Ferrari’s season.