Charles Leclerc: "I didn't expect to be on pole"

Charles Leclerc took his fourth pole position of the 2016 season in Malaysia and is now steaming towards a championship victory.

However the Frenchman was surprised to see that he had indeed taken his third successive pole after a poor build up to the lap and a mistake on his fastest lap.

"Yeah it was good. We struggled a bit on the first set of tyres, but then we made some changes on the car.," he said. "We went in the right direction on the second set. I put everything together on my lap which was the most important part."

"I made a little error in turns 7-8 but overall I'm happy with the lap because I didn't expect to be on pole again," he added. "Our fourth pole and third in a row shows we are in a good rhythm now and we need to keep it for Yas Marina too. But for now it's only positive."