Leclerc: Obviously I'll try to keep that first place

Red Bull's triple Formula 1 World Champion was head-and-shoulders better than his rivals in a tense session but will drop ten places on the grid due to the team's planned PU-related penalties. Verstappen's best time was six-tenths of a second faster than Leclerc's best effort, but the Dutch ace will start from P11.

Although surprised by the pace he found in the SF24, Leclerc intends to turn the inherited P1 start, his 25th F1 pole position, into victory on Sunday for Ferrari: "It's not the easiest first place to keep on the first lap here, but honestly I will see."

"Every start is different," explained Leclerc. "Once I am in the car on Sunday, through Eau Rouge I will see what the best thing is that I can do. Obviously, I'll try to keep that first place."

Leclerc was seven-tenths of a second faster than Sainz when it mattered in Q3 but P2 when the spray settled did surprise him: "It's good. I definitely did not expect that this weekend. Obviously, with the tricky conditions we could do something above our expectations.

"So it's a good day for the team so now we need to focus on [Sunday] and see what will happen when the rain is gone. Without this rain, probably P5 was the position we were fighting for with the Mercedes especially. But with the rain, it helped us a little bit, but I'm not going to complain.

"I'm really happy, I'm really happy with the lap in Q3, and it's good to be back on the front part of the grid. Now we've got to finalise that for the race," ventured Leclerc, whose maiden F1 victory came at the 2019 Belgian Grand Prix. This is his third P1 start at Spa.

Leclerc lies P3 in the 2024 Formula 1 World Championship standings ahead of Round 14, the 69th Belgian Grand Prix on Sunday.