Plenty of pole positions for Leclerc, but few wins

Charles Leclerc is the first driver in Formula One history to win the pole position in two qualifying sessions on the same weekend. He didn't come close to winning either race: the story of his career.

Charles Leclerc is the first driver in Formula One history to win the pole position in two qualifying sessions on the same weekend.

He didn't come close to winning either race -- the story of his career.

Leclerc has a talent for outperforming in an imperfect car -- like this year's Ferrari -- to set surprisingly fast times over a single lap. But he wasn't able to keep up with the dominant Red Bulls in either Saturday's sprint race or the main Grand Prix on Sunday.

Still, he finished second in the sprint and third in the main race to jumpstart a poor start to the 2023 season for Leclerc, who retired in two of the first three races.

"Got closer (to Red Bull), maybe a little bit, but still very far behind in race pace, at least, and also I think we are behind Aston Martin in terms of race pace," Leclerc said Sunday. "For now, we need to work on that because for now over one lap, taking a bit more risk -- of course I did also two great laps I think -- in qualifying which helped us to be in front, but then over 51 laps (in Sunday's) race, there's not much we can do more."

Leclerc now has 19 career pole positions -- not counting his "sprint shootout" pole Saturday, which used a shortened format -- but only five race wins. His record hardly mirrors Max Verstappen, who has 22 poles but 37 wins and two world championships.

Leclerc last converted a pole position into a race victory over a year ago, at the Australian Grand Prix in April 2022. Since that win, he has qualified on pole eight times -- including four in a row in mid-2022 -- and picked up one win, when he started second in Austria but passed Verstappen.