How did Leclerc lose valuable time on his final lap due to Hadjar's yellow flag incident?

Charles Leclerc believes a podium remains possible at the Belgian Grand Prix despite admitting Spa-Francorchamps exposes Ferrari's weaknesses, leaving the Scuderia facing an uphill battle against its rivals.

Leclerc qualified fifth for Sunday's race after producing a strong first lap in Q3, but his final attempt was compromised when he encountered yellow flags for Isack Hadjar's pit lane incident.

Forced to lift off, the Monegasque missed the opportunity to improve his time and ultimately finished just 0.002s ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton and half a second behind polesitter Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

"I was very satisfied with my first lap in Q3, while on my second lap I lost some time by lifting when I saw the yellow flag being waved at the pit lane for Isack (Hadjar)," Leclerc said after qualifying.

"There may have been a few hundredths to gain there, but there wasn't much more to extract from our car today. Our pace overall looks quite solid, even if our competitors are performing at a very high level and there is still a significant gap to them.

"We will see what we can bring home tomorrow. This track doesn't really suit the characteristics of our car, so it could be challenging to overtake and defend during the race, especially in the straight lines. We will push to gain some positions at the start and take it from there. A podium would be a good result for us."

Reflecting further on the yellow-flag interruption, Leclerc accepted that there was little he could do once the warning lights appeared.

"It is the way it is, I lifted off and I probably lost a bit of lap time there," he said.

Although the lost time may have been worth only a few hundredths of a second, Leclerc felt Ferrari had already extracted virtually everything from the SF-26 around a circuit that places a premium on top speed.

When asked whether a podium was a realistic target in Sunday's race, the Ferrari driver remained cautiously optimistic.

"It's going to be tricky," he admitted. "I think our power unit, we know we have a slight disadvantage on a track like this and we'll have to try and maximise everything and hopefully a podium is possible."