F1 | Spanish GP | Pole Sitter Charles Leclerc: "A very, very difficult session."
The Scuderia driver is extremely pleased to score P1 after spinning at the beginning of Q3, but warns that tomorrow's race won't be that easy.
Championship Leader Charles Leclerc takes his fourth seasonal pole in Barcelona. What a comeback for the Monegasque driver, who had spun right at the beginning of the Q3 session, not allowing him to set a lap time during his first attempt.
However, he managed to overcome that difficult moment by signing the only lap time under the 1:19s of the session, as in his only timed lap he signed a 1:18.750.
POLE for @Charles_Leclerc! 👏👏👏 #SpanishGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/yerg6UaI8O
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 21, 2022
Leclerc was extremely satisfied with his performance, as he said in the post qualifyng session interview:"I feel good."
“It was a very, very difficult session, especially in Q3, because I did a mistake in the first run of Q3 and then obviously I only had one lap, but it went extremely well. "
It's the first pole in Spain for the Italian team since Kimi Raikkonen's in 2008, an extra reason for Leclerc to be "very happy".
"I had a bit of moment on my lap but at the end made it stick and very, very happy with pole position. It was a good lap, and the car was amazing too. So, yes, I'm very happy."
Even if the pole position gives him a good advantage for tomorrow's race win, considering that 6 out of the 8 previous winner in Barcelona had started from P1, Leclerc reminds everyone to stay focused on the main event:
“I am in a strong position to start the race but we’ve been struggling with tyres compared to Red Bull so Max is just behind, and if we don’t manage those tyres well, we will lose that win."
The Spanish GP holds a particular importance this year for Ferrari, as it's the home race for Leclerc's teammate Carlos Sainz. Leclerc hopes that he will be able to celebrate the occasion tomorrow with Sainz from the top podium spots:
"So, we need to get on top of it and do a good job tomorrow with tyre management.
"I hope we can do a one-two together with Carlos; it would be great for the team and yes, we will give it all.”
His pole position today has even more importance than usual, because it came after such a huge mistake.
"Obviously the circumstances weren’t easy. I remember Singapore 2019 was a pretty good lap too, with a lot of snaps, etcetera, but this lap also had something special because of the mistake just before.
“I knew I only had one chance and I managed to squeeze everything in that lap," he highlighted.
That was a really good one. P1 babyy 😘 pic.twitter.com/lCqv7FtqQQ
— Charles Leclerc (@Charles_Leclerc) May 21, 2022
