Connor McDonagh 2 Minute Read

Charles Leclerc has played down Sauber's chances in the upcoming races after scoring the team's best result since the 2015 Russian Grand Prix, in Baku.

After making Q2 for the first time in his short Formula One career on Saturday, Leclerc made the most of a chaotic start and was running inside the top ten during the early stages of the race. The reigning F2 champion benefitted from a late Safety Car caused by the two Red Bulls colliding at Turn 1 and Romain Grosjean's crash under the Safety Car to come home in sixth place.

While Leclerc is ecstatic with the result, he is realistic about his chances in the upcoming European rounds.

"I think this is something I need to be careful of because being realistic this is not going to happen every race. We have made everything right this weekend and everything went very well but nobody should expect the same race next time. It would be stupid. We will work towards trying to get a result as good as this one but as I said it was a combination of everything here and we shouldn't expect it but we will work hard to get a similar result in the future.''

Charles Leclerc scored Sauber's best result since 2015 with a sixth-place finish in Azerbaijan. Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Leclerc has endured a difficult start to life in F1 with several spins and mistakes during the opening three rounds of the season. The Monegasque driver believes his improved performance this weekend was not only down to him, but the car in terms of setup.

"I think it's a combination of both,'' Leclerc replied when asked how much of the improvement this weekend was down to him or the car. "I think I improved a lot because of the approach we had this weekend with the setup. I don't remember if I already mentioned, but we went to a more understeer car for me, which is more the way Marcus was driving the car before. And before, my car was way too unpredictable and was very difficult to put everything together.

"And coming here we targeted a more understeer balance and it has been night and day for me. So I think this has helped me a lot. I think, again, the car suits the track well. I like the track. So a bit of everything, but I definitely think the biggest difference is the car coming to me and me getting more confidence with the car has made that we had a better performance this weekend.''