Ferrari's Leclerc takes pole position for Azerbaijan GP

ISTANBUL

Ferrari's Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc on Friday clinched the pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

"For sure I’m surprised. We came into the weekend thinking that it would be a great weekend if we are ahead of Aston and Mercedes in qualifying, and at the end we are on pole. So, it’s a really good surprise," Leclerc said after the first-place finish.

"We must not forget that our race car is maybe still behind the Red Bulls, so it’s going to be difficult to keep the lead, but that’s the target," he added.

Leclerc, 25, won the top place with a minute and 40.203 seconds in the qualifying stage in Baku City Circuit.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen was just 0.188 seconds behind in the second spot, while his teammate Sergio Perez came in third with a time of one minute and 0.292 seconds.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso were fifth and sixth respectively for Mercedes, while Aston Martin, Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda took eye-catching P7 and P8 spots.

Azerbaijan will host the first F1 Sprint of the season on Saturday, with the new Sprint Shootout set to begin at 12:30 p.m. local time (0830GMT), followed by the 100-kilometer (62-mile) Sprint race at 05:30 p.m. local time (1330GMT).

The Azerbaijan Grand Prix, round 4 of the season, will take place over 51 laps on the 6.003-kilometer (3.7-mile) Baku City Circuit on Sunday.