Formula 1
LECLERC GRABS POLE POSITION IN ESPANA MAX HAS POWER ISSUE FERNANDO LOOSES HIS MOJO!
Leclerc survived intense pressure on Saturday to beat world champion Max Verstappen, who suffered a late loss of power, to pole position for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver had spun his car on his opening run in the third part of qualifying, but responded with a fast, nerveless and improved lap to regain top spot ahead of the Dutchman who was unable to respond.
It brought Leclerc his first pole position in Spain, his fourth of the season and the 13th of his career.
“I only had that one lap, but it went extremely well,” said the 24-year-old Monegasque.
Max qualified second ahead of local hero Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari and a resurgent George Russell for Mercedes, Sergio Perez in the second Red Bull and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in the second Mercedes.
“I feel very good,” said Leclerc.
“It was a very, very difficult session, especially in Q3, when I made a mistake on the first run so I only had one lap.”
Max Verstappen Takes Honda to Second Place in Spain
Verstappen said: “I couldn’t do my final run. Either the DRS (Drag Reduction System) didn’t open or I lost power. It’s a bit of a shame, but overall to be on the front row here, looking at the whole weekend, it was a good achievement.”
Red Bull confirmed it was the DRS system that had failed.
Sainz, cheered by the big sellout crowd, said: “It’s been a tough weekend so far. The conditions have not been easy with the heat and wind, but we managed a decent lap.”
Valtteri Bottas qualified seventh, ahead of Kevin Magnussen of Haas, Daniel Ricciardo of McLaren and Mick Schumacher in the second Haas.
On a hot, dry afternoon in Catalonia, Guanyu Zhou was the first man on track in Q1 in which Perez and Verstappen both topped the times before the Ferraris took over and the Mercedes men slotted in fourth and fifth.
Schumacher took part after a great effort by his Haas team to repair his car following the brakes blaze that stopped him in third practice.
He repaid them with a lap that lifted him briefly to ninth and beyond danger while, to the crowd’s dismay, Fernando Alonso was one of two former world champions dumped out in Q1.
BWT Alpine F1 Team qualified with both cars outside the top ten for tomorrow’s Spanish Grand Prix with Esteban Ocon twelfth and Fernando Alonso seventeenth on Saturday in a scorching hot Qualifying at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
The veteran Spaniard, now 40, was 17th in his Alpine and joined both Aston Martin drivers Lance Stroll and four-time champion Sebastian Vettel, 18th and 16th respectively, in being eliminated along with the two Williams of Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi.
It was the first time Alonso had failed to escape Q1 at his home event.
Fernando Alonso, P17, 1:21.043: “It was a difficult qualifying session for me today and we had a bit of a misunderstanding on my final lap of Q1. I thought we had a one or two second margin to get across the line, but we actually had a twenty second margin in the end. It’s a high price to pay here because as we know it’s very difficult to overtake on this track. Let’s see tomorrow because in the last few races people who have started towards the back of the grid have had a well-timed Safety Car and then are inside the top ten. We need to hope for one of those tomorrow and maybe we get some luck and take some points. Today the car was not as fast as yesterday and we need to understand why that was the case.”