Leclerc put the perfect performance around the Baku City Circuit and took pole position in the chaotic qualifying session, where both Gasly and Devry caused red flags. It was finally an impressive display of what the Ferrari SF-23 is capable of when everything comes together.

Let’s start comparing Leclerc and the driver who ended up last: Nick de Vries.

LEC is always faster than DEV all along the circuit, adding up at each turn, and making the final lap time gap pretty significant.

LEC is always faster than than DEV all along the circuit, adding up every feet, and making the final
lap time gap pretty significant. There’s no single point for DEV to be faster or drive better than
LEC.
In each turn LEC is deeper on the brakes, anyway closing the turns with a good track, so the be able
to have full throttle in a shorter way. The points above are a clear mark that on this circuit LEC is
taking advantage of traction and stability of his Ferrari.
It seems to face 2 complete different level of cars for this qualifying lap
Compared to such level of competitors, Ferrari is the best car in the city, but let’s get a close view
against the championship leader.

There was a moment towards the end of the qualifying when both Leclerc and Verstappen had the same identical times: 1:40:445s. Now let’s see what made Leclerc beating Verstappen by 0.188s.

Despite a slower start, LEC extended the gap to VER in the last sectors, which is probably what secured his pole position.

Compared to other analysis we can see a very nice head-to-head between the two drivers.
In sector1 we assist to the life motiv of the season RB leading and gaining gap at every turn thanks
to a better car stability and grip on the track. LEC try to be deep on the brakes but as a result being
more wide on the turn, losing gap as VER manage to speed up in shorter time.
Suddenly in sector 2 & 3, characterized by sequence of turns, we see LEC closing initial gap and
taking the lead on the fast track. Ferrari is granting a more precise track and LEC is able to speed up
quicker than VER. RB seems to have less grip on the track in these turns, leaving VER unable to
drive the car as he is used to, i.e. less precision on the turn, longer path and less acceleration on the
turn exit.
VER reported the same impression on the grip to the team radio.
Nevertheless VER can recover during the long final straight, where his RB creates a gap in the max
speed on the lap compared to LEC
Finally a GP Ferrari looks like a top team, and be able to race with the best drivers and potentially
get good results.
This is also confirmed by motor range and DRS use that are very similar, more than on other tracks,
between LEC and VER

*Image by Freepik