The Monegasque charles leclerc (Ferrari), second overall in the Formula 1 Drivers’ World Championship, won this Saturday the pole position for Sunday’s race at the French Grand Prix, at the Paul Ricard circuit in Le Castellet.
Leclerc won the current World Championship leader and reigning world champion, the Dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull), who will start second in the qualifying session.
The Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) and the Englishman Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) will start on the second row in this twelfth round of the twenty-two of the season.
Leclerc praises the team’s work
The Monegasque finished at the head of a suspenseful qualifying session, where he had made a whirlwind start under the barrier of 1 minute 32 seconds in one lap (1:31.727), closely followed by Verstappen.
Leclerc did even better in the final seconds of Q3, being the only one to pass under 1 minute and 31 seconds (1:30.872), eventually achieving the seventh pole position of this season, with the effective help of his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr, in the other Ferrari.
«It has been a very good lap, and I must say that I have also had the help of Carlos, giving me aspiration. Without him, everything would have been much tighter. It was truly a team effort”, Leclerc reacted, having gained some precious tenths of a second, by falling just behind the Spaniard in the fastest portions.
Sainz knew that he was going to be relegated to the last row of the grid on Sunday, next to the Danish Kevin Magnussen (Haas), due to the placement, on Saturday, of his fourth engine this season, that is, one more with respect to the authorized fee.
Magnussen also went through Q3, for pleasure, knowing that he would be at the back of the grid on Sunday, which shows clear progress in recent weeks for his small American team.
Verstappen advantage
Verstappen is 38 points clear of Leclerc in the championship standings at mid-season, after eleven sets of 22. But Leclerc leads 7-3 in the standings. pole position of this season.
In the Top 10, but behind the top teamsSpaniard Fernando Alonso (Alpine) will start seventh on the grid, behind Lando Norris (5th) in his McLaren and George Russell in the other Mercedes.
