Charles Leclerc admits fourth on the grid is much higher than he could have expected after qualifying for the Eifel Grand Prix.
The Monegasque ran well inside the top five all day at the Nurburgring, but it was still a shock when he put his Ferrari in between the two Red Bulls on the second row of the grid.
“I don’t really know. I’m quite surprised, especially with this weather, I expected to struggle in the cold weather,” he told Sky Sports when asked where the extra speed has come from.
“From the beginning of the season, we are struggling to make [the tyres] work any time it is cold. Today, it seems it has worked out for us.
“I’m very happy, very happy with my last lap. I put everything together and P4 is great.”
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In the hands of Leclerc at least, the SF1000 is starting to work its way back into the battle behind Mercedes and Max Verstappen, this after the team brought new parts in Sochi and this weekend in Germany.
“There were upgrades this weekend that worked in the proper way,” Charles confirmed.
“We are not trying to find an update that is giving a huge amount of lap time, just small differences every weekend which for now is working well.
“Every time we are bringing something on the car, it’s working, which was not the case in the past. This is very important and it helps us to build a solid base for the car.”
Teammate Sebastian Vettel is still struggling to get on top of the 2020 Ferrari, however, with Leclerc half a second faster than the German, who finished qualifying P11.
“In the first sector I was quite competitive,” he said. “But Seb is a four-time world champion and I’m pretty sure that he will come back where he deserves to be.
“At the moment I am focusing on myself, I’m trying to push myself as much as possible when I’m inside the car and it’s working pretty well for me.”
Looking ahead to Sunday, Leclerc admits the cancellation of practice on Friday does make it hard to set expectations.
“It’s going to be a very interesting race,” he said. “We all go a bit into the unknown.
“We haven’t done any high-fuel runs yet, so it’s going to be important to take care of those tyres and try to anticipate as much as possible which axle will degrade first. This is where I will focus tomorrow.”