Leclerc: None of us expected P3 in Qualifying

The Monegasque racer had been struggling for much of the weekend, only qualifying his SF-25 in eighth position for the Sprint race and ultimately finishing said race in fifth place.

Meanwhile, his teammate Lewis Hamilton failed to make it out of Q2, lining up behind drivers of seven different teams. This indicated that Ferrari were unlikely to score well around the Interlagos Circuit.

Nevertheless, Leclerc stepped up when it truly mattered, putting in a 1:09.805 lap time which put him on the second row of the grid, behind the Mercedes of Andrea Kimi Antonelli and current Championship leader Lando Norris.

Leclerc expressed surprise at qualifying so high up the order, something which seemed impossible after a dismal Friday.

He said: "For qualifying, I’m happy to have put it all together. We changed the car a bit after the Sprint this morning which gave us some more performance.

"It was very tight today, and I put in good laps in Q2 and Q3, so I’m satisfied to be starting the race from third place tomorrow because none of us expected this given what a challenging weekend we’ve had so far and the team did a really good job today.

"If we manage to stay ahead after the start we have a chance to bring home a good result for the team," stated Leclerc.

There were contrasting fortunes in the Ferrari garages, as Hamilton once again failed to make it into the top ten. The seven-time World Champion will start Sunday's Grand Prix from 13th after being knocked out in Q2.

He started with the positives, being a good result in the preceding Sprint race.

He said: "Today started on a positive note here in Brazil. In the Sprint I was able to make up a good number of places, which got me back into the points."

But several setup changes to his SF-25 ended up costing the 40-year-old more than it helped.

He continued: "We made some changes to the car afterwards that helped on the straights and in the high-speed corners, but unfortunately we couldn’t get the rear tyres into the right window in Q2 and that cost us.

"Still, a lot can happen on this track, as we’ve already seen today, so we’ll give it everything and try to put up a strong fight tomorrow," concluded the Ferrari driver.

The Sao Paulo Grand Prix commences Sunday 9 November at 17:00 GMT (14:00 local time).