Leclerc was ‘best of the rest’ in qualifying behind Lewis Hamilt✨on, Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas, while Carlos Sainz qualified sixth.

The Monegasque driver endured his worst qualifying session o💞f the season last time out in Portugal as he qualified eighth.

He blamed his poor qualifying performance at Portimao for how he approached the rac𒊎e weekend and ho🎀w he tackled the windy conditions.

When asked if his slight change in approach to qualifying worked, Leclerc said: “Yes, it worked well for me. Q1 and Q2 for me was all about trying to focus to 🐻try and get t🌱he fastest lap without damaging the tyres, because it will be very important to have a good set for the race start.

“I was try🧜ing to do the best possible job without damaging the tyres, and it worked out, I was very happy with my Q2 lap to go through with a clean lap. Then, in Q3, once I pushed a bit more, the 🧸car just came together and then the lap time arrived.

“I think the best lap was probably on the scrubbed se🃏t. The first run was very, very good, and then on the new one, I did a few mistakes in t𒆙he last sector, but overall, a good day for us.”

F𓆏errari looks to have the third-fastest car in Barcelona and Sainz believes t꧋he lack of straights is helping the SF21’s performance.

“Yes, I think partially it’s there are less straight in this track, and that is helping our relative competitiveness to be a bit higher, but, as you guys 🍒can see, in the last sector the car is quite competitive, it’s working well in the corners and we actually had a pretty decent balance all weekend,” Sainz addedꦦ.

“We are carrying a bit of a deficit in the race, in terms of tyre management, we’re still not where we want to be. In Portimão we struggled a lot and we saw on Friday, again, we don’t have the best of race paces or tyre degradation. But, at the same time, if we get a good start and execut𒈔e the strategy well, I still think we can finish in front of the rest.”