Leclerc: Hopefully with Carlos we can play a team game to win

Despite three previous pole positions in Baku, neither Ferrari nor Leclerc have won the race. Only Red Bull and Mercedes have managed that, but on Sunday, Leclerc could break their stranglehold and is counting on help from Sainz.

Not only was Charles extremely fast in qualifying - three-tenths quicker than anyone else - but, in retrospect, there should have been no doubt that Leclerc would put the Ferrari on pole, given his mastery of the track despite a minor brush with the barriers on Friday.

The achievement - Leclerc’s 26th F1 pole position - delighted the Monegasque, he beamed afterwards in parc ferme: "It's one of my favourite tracks of the season, I really like it. It hasn't been an easy weekend because obviously the crash in FP1. But it didn't make me lose the confidence, I knew the pace was there.

"In FP2 we had a problem with a new part on the car and we lost another half an hour and we didn't recover those laps, but the pace was always there. In qualifying, it was all about trying to stay away from the walls and then in that last lap I went for it a bit more and the lap time came very nice. The car felt really good, everything felt great and it's amazing to be on pole.

"First and third is where you want to start. Hopefully, we can play a team game to win the race. In the past we have struggled in the race, this year we have a stronger race car so I hope that we can finally make it," concluded Leclerc.

The Ferrari we saw at Monza, with Leclerc powering to a famous victory, set the benchmark for what the great Italian team can achieve in this era. They can get their sums right, they can pull off amazing strategies, and they can be the supreme F1 team they are known to be. Expect no less from Fred Vasseur’s troops.

Ferrari, and Leclerc in particular, are carrying the momentum from Monza as inspiration for what could be a victory at Baku.

In the other Ferrari, Carlos Sainz simply did not have Leclerc’s pace when it mattered in Q3—but no one else did, for that matter. However, one could argue that Sainz starting directly behind Leclerc, for the short drag to Turn 1, might even be better than P2.

Sainz said of his Qualy in Baku today: "I think we had a solid qualy, a solid day in general and we are both in a good position for the race. I've never been 100% hooked up around here, never my best version, so P3 is a good place to be and my race pace in practice seemed strong, so all to play for on Sunday."