Charles Leclerc claimed an important pole position for the French Grand Prix as Ferrari played the team game in qualifying.
The Monegasque would post a 1m30.872s with the help of a slipstream from teammate Carlos Sainz, who drops to the back of the grid with an engine-related penalty.
Max Verstappen will line up in second ahead of teammate Sergio Perez, as Red Bull chose not to respond to Ferrari’s tactics.
Q1
Leclerc led Verstappen at the front as both drivers dipped into the 1m31s bracket for the first time this weekend.
In the bottom five, Mick Schumacher appeared to have made it into Q2 with his final lap, but the time would be deleted for exceeding track limits, dropping him to 19th.
Devastating for Mick Schumacher, so close! pic.twitter.com/qq6zlg1OmQ
— AnythingF1 (@AnythingF1_) July 23, 2022
A spin for Alex Albon, who sneaked through in 15th after Schumacher’s deletion, compromised several drivers with yellow flags.
Among them was Pierre Gasly, who after an optimistic Friday, missed the cut in 16th at his home race, setting the same time as Lance Stroll in 17th.
A slide at Turn 6 ruined Zhou Guanyu’s final run leaving him 18th, ahead of Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi in slowest.
Q2
Ferrari upped the ante in Q2 with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc pulling 0.9s clear of Verstappen, who only did one run in third.
In the frenetic battle to make the top 10, the two Mercedes’ needed strong final runs to ensure safe passage into Q3.
Their laps knocked Daniel Ricciardo out in P11 for McLaren, ahead of Esteban Ocon in P12, though both will start inside the top 10.
Valtteri Bottas could only manage 13th for Alfa Romeo ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Albon who completed the top 15.
Q3
As the fight for pole got serious in Q3, it was then Ferrari opted to use Sainz to give Leclerc a tow along the Mistral Straight.
Leclerc has the early advantage in Q3 but not by much!
He’s 0.008s faster than Verstappen after the first runs#FrenchGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/8UspW9EMY6
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 23, 2022
After working to give the Monegasque an 0.008s edge after the first run, the same approach helped Leclerc improve by another three-tenths to secure pole by exactly that margin over Verstappen in second.
Sergio Perez had a strong qualifying as he closed the one-second margin to his teammate in practice to just a tenth-and-a-half in third in the second Red Bull.
Lewis Hamilton maximised Mercedes’ result in fourth with Lando Norris putting his McLaren between the two Silver Arrows in fifth.
Fernando Alonso finished seventh and Yuki Tsunoda eighth. Sainz and Kevin Magnussen didn’t post a time due to their respective penalties.
It does mean, however, that Ricciardo will move up to ninth and Ocon 10th on the grid in the Alpine.
Full results from qualifying can be seen below:
QUALIFYING CLASSIFICATION
Another super Saturday for Leclerc ?#FrenchGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/kc9CZwJ6Vp
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 23, 2022
