Charles Leclerc showed extraordinary concentration in Barcelona. After making a big mistake on his first lap of Q3, he was able to make the perfect lap to get pole position.
The Monegasque driver defeated his championship rival Max Verstappen, victim of a DRS anomaly in his last flying lap of Q3.
So he left the post to Leclerc, but he still put his Red Bull RB18 in the front row of the grid.
It was a real shame, admitted Verstappen, a handsome player. But starting with the first line is okay with me. Hopefully in the race, the car will allow me to keep my tires on, as it will be very hot. It can be complicated in our attempts to overtake.
An anomaly of the movable plate of the rear wing (the drag reduction system, DRS) confirmed by the boss of the Red Bull team.
It wasn’t the machine, but the DRS didn’t open, Christian Horner revealed. We need to find the problem tomorrow. But hey, I’m not sure if we can beat Charles. He made a perfect lap despite the pressure.
Despite the pressure
Leclerc recorded an unbeatable time of 1: 18.750. He only gathered for 78 seconds per lap. So far, Monegasque is the fastest of all the weekend sessions.
But we cannot write that he is perfect. He couldn’t avoid the round in his first qualifying lap of Q3 in the last chicane of the circuit. It put a lot of pressure on his shoulders for his second and final qualifying lap of the session.
I made a big mistake on my first lap in Q3, Leclerc admits, Fortunately and got better on the next lap, the car handling was very good. Now I know tomorrow is super hot, and the tires are hard to preserve.
Recovering full concentration to gain pole position is remarkable. But Leclerc knew the hardest part was yet to come. Ferrari wanted to pick up the victory on Sunday to curb Verstappen’s momentum.
It will therefore be another battle between Ferrari and Red Bull for command at the start of the race.
Briton George Russell was involved in the fight for pole position, but eventually had to settle for 4th place on the grid. He seemed more comfortable than his teammate taking advantage of his Mercedes-Benz W13. Lewis Hamilton finished the session with the 6th fastest time.
Aston Martin route. Despite the (controversial) improvements made to AMR22, Lance Stroll was eliminated in Q1 for the 18th time, his teammate Sebastian Vettel finishing in 16th place. The new version of the car did not react well to heat, and drivers suffered from oversteer on Saturday. It is impossible to push the curves without risking rotation.
I’m not comfortable in the car yet, and I can’t push, ”Stroll said. You need to make sure you can move on to this new version of the single-seater. Because it’s going to be so hot in the race, if we can take care of our tires, with good strategy, we can get some space.
Nicholas Latifi (Williams) of Toronto ended the session in the slowest time. More than 3 seconds from Charles Leclerc’s time.
It will be difficult in the race, Latifi said, because it will be hotter, and will hurt the tires. But it can create opportunities, so we need to stay optimistic. That said, despite the different settings, we still lack rhythm, especially on large fast curves.
More details to come.
Source: Radio-Canada
