Leclerc jumped out of his SF-23 after posting his banker lap in Q3 to forfeit his shot at pole position, with the driver settling for third place by lapping 0.292s adrift of Max Verstappen and behind the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
While this led to some speculation that he might have encountered a technical issue - with the Monegasque triggering a red flag in Q1 when his car twice shed bodywork - the driver and his team have relayed that this was a deliberate strategy to better attack the race.
Leclerc confirmed there was no fault with his car, but in recognising Ferrari is on the “backfoot” compared to Red Bull’s race pace, they had opted to carry over a set of Pirellis for the race.
He said: “No, there wasn't any issue.
“I think we were in a fight for pole, which was a good surprise, to be honest.
“I did not expect that after testing and after the free practices that were a little bit difficult.
“We managed to find that pace for the quali lap, which was great.
“However, we need to keep in our mind that in the race run, we seem to be a little bit on the backfoot compared to Red Bull.
“I think we are in a better place starting third with new tyres than starting first with old or a bit further up.
“I don't know if we would have gotten pole or not. But it would have been close.”
Leclerc was nevertheless buoyed by his turn of pace on Saturday, admitting that he had not expected Ferrari to be as close to Red Bull based on his discontent during testing, when he was deliberately sent out to chase understeer-biased set-ups, and during practice.
“We are much closer than what we expected, which is looking good for the future,” said Leclerc.
“I think it makes Formula 1 more exciting. So, I'm looking forward to the rest of the races.
“We seem to have a bit of a weakness for now. Having a new tyre will help us tomorrow.
“But I don't know how much the picture will change with that, but it's going into in the right direction at least.”
