LE CASTELLET, 23 Jul: Charles Leclerc used help from Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. to beat Formula One leader Max Verstappen and take pole position for the French Grand Prix on Saturday.
\nSainz had nothing at stake since he was starting from the back of the grid after multiple engine-part changes, so Ferrari used him to give Leclerc a tow on his two runs in Q3.
\nLeclerc was up by just .008 seconds from Verstappen after his first run. The team worked seamlessly on Leclerc\u2019s second run as he beat his own leading time and finished .3 seconds ahead of Verstappen and .46 clear of Verstappen\u2019s Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
\n\u201cIt was a great lap. I have to say thanks to Carlos for the help. It was great teamwork,\u201d Leclerc said. \u201cIt\u2019s quite tricky to get it exactly right, in the first lap we were maybe a bit too close. In the second lap we adapted and it was a bit better.\u201d
\nLewis Hamilton qualified in fourth for Mercedes.
\nLeclerc thanked Sainz on the team radio after his seventh pole of the season and 16th of his career. It was also a good sign of Ferrari working together, after Leclerc expressed frustration at team orders in Monaco and at the British GP.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s all about trust in the end. Carlos judged it perfectly and got out of the way at the right moment,\u201d Leclerc said. \u201cIt would have been a lot tighter with Max without the tow.\u201d
\nVerstappen said Ferrari\u2019s tactics were \u201csmart\u201d but that it wasn\u2019t something Red Bull could try, since they were both going for pole.
\nVerstappen was happy with Red Bull\u2019s straight-line speed but had a bit of trouble getting the tires in the right window in hot conditions that are set to increase for Sunday\u2019s race.
\n\u201cOn that final lap I just had two moments that cost me a bit of lap time. But we still have two cars in the top three, so that\u2019s good,\u201d Verstappen said. \u201cIt was a bit more tricky than I would have hoped, but overall we have a decent car for tomorrow.\u201d
\nSainz\u2019s engine caught fire near the end of the last grand prix in Austria two weeks ago. He was handed a 10-place grid penalty on Friday because Ferrari changed the power unit, and extra engine changes on Saturday sent him to the last row with Kevin Magnussen, whose Haas team made similar engine changes.
\nMcLaren\u2019s Lando Norris was fifth and Hamilton\u2019s teammate George Russel in sixth. Russel was still in the drop zone with four minutes left in Q2, and was worried about a potential yellow flag scuppering his final lap so he asked to come out as early as possible. McLaren\u2019s Daniel Ricciardo was 11th and eliminated.
\nFernando Alonso (Alpine), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Sainz and Magnussen (Haas) rounded out the top 10.
\nSainz qualified ninth and will start 19th, while Magnussen was 10th and goes last.
\nThe first part of Q1 saw Perez momentarily getting in Verstappen\u2019s way.
\n\u201cWhat was Checo doing there on the line?\u201d a puzzled Verstappen asked.
\nLeclerc, meanwhile, was already leading the first run and didn\u2019t see the need for another timed lap.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know why we did this second push to be honest,\u201d he said.
\nAfter two top 10 finishes at the British GP and Austria, Haas driver Mick Schumacher was confident heading to Le Castellet. But he was among the five drivers eliminated from Q1, along with home favorite Pierre Gasly.
\n\u201cI completely lost the car in Turn 6. I\u2019m very disappointed, this isn\u2019t the qualifying we wanted,\u201d said a dejected Gasly, who drives for AlphaTauri. \u201cI was sliding in all the turns. It doesn\u2019t make much sense.\u201d
\nEarlier Saturday, Verstappen comfortably led the third practice by .35 seconds from Sainz and .64 from Leclerc, with Hamilton fourth.
\nHamilton is taking part in his 300th race and seeking his first win of the season after three straight podiums.
\nFerrari topped both Friday practices through Leclerc then Sainz.
\nFerrari is seeking a third consecutive victory following Sainz\u2019s win at Silverstone and Leclerc\u2019s drive to victory in Austria, where he trimmed Verstappen\u2019s overall lead to 38 points.
\nRed Bull and Ferrari have won the first 11 races between them, with Red Bull up 7-4.
\nThe atmosphere at the Paul Ricard Circuit in southeastern France was calm compared to some of the boorish behavior at recent races. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LE CASTELLET, 23 Jul: Charles Leclerc used help from Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. to beat Formula One leader Max Verstappen and take pole position for the French Grand Prix on Saturday. Sainz had nothing at stake since he was starting from the back of the grid after multiple engine-part changes, so Ferrari used him […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-196129","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196129\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}