“Huge thanks to him,” Charles Leclerc grateful to Carlos Sainz for his help to clinch Pole at the French GP
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Charles Leclerc after taking the Pole
Charles Leclerc managed to get together a fantastic lap that earned him the Pole position for the French Grand Prix. But he should, and was, grateful to Carlos Sainz for playing the team game after a lot of controversy around the last few weekends. Charles alone wouldn’t have managed to build a pace that would have beaten the Red Bulls. He ultimately needed a tow from his teammate in Sector 2, not once but twice. Even though Max Verstappen ruined his second Q3 and wasn’t able to improve much off his lap time, things would have been engaging with both the Ferrari going for an individual run.
Carlos got his engine all blown up after showing off an amazing amount of pace in the Austrian GP. He was forced to take new parts for his engines such as an internal combustion engine, turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K. That, obviously, got him the penalties sending him to the back of the grid no matter the position he finished on in the Qualifying. But Carlos was made to stay on track just to help his teammate get that extra pace on the final run, and he also opted to play the team game. This teamwork got Charles his pole and a chance to win the French Grand Prix, as the stats from the last three races mention the winner from the Pole position.
Charles recognised his teammate’s work and didn’t hide his much-deserved appreciation. “Without Carlos [giving me a tow] it would have been much closer. So huge thanks to him. The car feels good. Let’s see how it goes tomorrow, ” said Charles.
Charles Leclerc is on pole for the French but where are the others?
Charles managed to grab his 7th pole of the season and 16th pole of his career, making him the third most pole sitter in the history of Ferrari. Leclerc got a 1:30.872 making him the only one to get into the 30s. Max Verstappen is starting from P2, not much behind Charles and with a better-suited car as seen today. Sergio Perez managed a P3 after a last few tough weekends.
Mercedes was a hot topic before the French weekend started, as everyone expected to see a comeback from the regaining world champions. But things didn’t seem well for the silver arrows. Though Lewis Hamilton managed a P4 he was still half a second behind the top team. George Russell only managed a P6 start. Lando Norris managed to split both the Mercs with a great Q3 lap and is starting P5.
Fernando Alonso is starting P7 with Yuki Tsunoda on P8. Carlos Sainz finished P9 and Kevin Magnussen P10, but both the drivers will start behind the pack after serving their penalties. The penalty would shift Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon to P9 and P10 respectively.
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Soham Raj Jain
(480 Articles Published)