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Ferrari's Charles Leclerc cruised his way through Saturday's qualifying to take the pole position for the 2022 F1 French GP ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. The Monegasque was aided in his pursuit of the front row of the grid by his teammate Carlos Sainz, who was instrumental in playing the team game.
Sainz, who will be starting at the back of the grid due to penalties, used his Q3 appearance to provide Leclerc with a much-required tow. This propelled the latter to the top of the charts with a 0.304-second gap to second-placed Max Verstappen. In the post-qualifying interview in parc fermé, the Ferrari driver was profuse in his gratitude for his teammate, saying:
“It’s a great lap. I’ve struggled all weekend to put a lap together and I managed to do it. But I have to say that I also had the help of Carlos [Sainz] and that was amazing teamwork, because without Carlos it would have been much closer, so a huge thanks to Carlos and I hope that he can join us back in the fight for the win tomorrow.”
Carlos Sainz starting from the back of the grid leaves Charles Leclerc open to a two-pronged attack by the two Red Bulls. It remains to be seen how Leclerc fends them off at the start of the race if he is to aim for a win here.
Charles Leclerc has 'full confidence' in Ferrari
Up until the 2022 F1 Spanish GP, Charles Leclerc was leading the drivers' standings. Ferrari's reliability issues coupled with their strategic blunders led to him being overtaken by reigning world champion Max Verstappen on points.
Despite that, the Monegasque remains confident in his team's potential to match Red Bull and fight for the title. Speaking to Sportskeeda's Niharika Ghorpade, Leclerc said:
“I have full confidence in the team. And I think we’ve shown after ‘20 and 2021 that we have the team to come back at the top then. Of course, we’ve done a few mistakes in the last races, in Silverstone in Monaco, but this happens to every team and now we are a bit more in the spotlight because we are fighting for wins. And we always try and work on ourselves to get better. And we, for sure, need to get better. But yeah, I don’t think there’s a particular weakness there.”
The rising temperatures at Circuit Paul Ricard have once again thrown the paddock's attention to Ferrari's reliability woes. Should Charles Leclerc be able to overcome these issues, he could very well aim for the victory, significantly carving into Max Verstappen and Red Bull's respective championship leads.
