Charles Leclerc continued his incredible start to 2022, by taking a dominant pole at the returning Australian Grand Prix, ahead of rival Max Verstappen who will most likely be his greatest challenger at the Albert Park Circuit come Sunday.
Leclerc performed brilliantly in the final qualifying session at Albert Park and claimed pole by just over two tenths of a second, after posting a 1:17.868. Considering he’s struggled at the circuit in the past, Leclerc has certainly nailed the transformed circuit, which has undergone significant changes.
The Monegasque driver was very pleased with his Saturday performance, and is feeling good ahead of Sunday’s race.
“I’m happy with my result today. This circuit is really tricky and I’ve always struggled here in the past. It may not have seemed like it this weekend because we’ve been quite fast, but I’ve done a lot of work to optimise my performance.
“The team did a great job. We stayed calm at all times, despite red flags, yellow flags and traffic. The biggest limitation for me was the sun. It was low and at an inconvenient angle and it was almost impossible to see where I was in Q2 and most of Q3. I took a lot of risks and I’m glad that I managed to put together such a good lap in the end. It doesn’t look too bad in terms of race pace. It’s very close with our competitors so it will be a difficult but exciting race tomorrow.“
“My Qualifying Three went all wrong” – Carlos Sainz Jr
Qualifying Three was a nightmare for Carlos Sainz Jr, the Spaniard who will start from ninth, saw his first-time deleted as the red flag was flown just as he was about to cross the line. Fernando Alonso put his A522 in the wall, bringing out the red flag.
Sainz’s luck failed to improve, he was unable to do a preparation lap to get the tyres into the right operating window, after issues firing up his F1-75. This meant Sainz struggled for grip on his final push lap, leaving him much further down the field than he would’ve liked.
The Spaniard will have to grit his teeth on Sunday in order to recover a strong haul of points, something which is very possibly considering the strong pace he’s demonstrated all weekend.
“We had good pace today but my Q3 went completely wrong. We got the red flag right before the finish line of the first flying lap and on my second one, I was about to go out but there was a delay in firing up my car. We finally got going but I didn’t have time to do the preparation lap, which meant the tyres were far from ready for the push lap, sliding everywhere.
“Tomorrow I’ll obviously try to recover as much as possible, but without the fourth DRS zone the circuit hasn’t changed that much from the old one and it will be tricky to overtake. Anyway, tomorrow is another day and we’ll try to come back.”
