F1 Spanish Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc secures pole in qualifying
21st May 2022Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc stole pole position from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, ahead of F1’s Spanish Grand Prix, despite the Monegasque’s early spin in Q3.
How qualifying unfolded…
Q1
When the pit exit light went green, Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou and both Alpha Tauri drivers, Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda were the first to venture out onto the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. Naturally, Zhou set the first lap time, a 1:21.065. While both Alpha Tauri drivers could only set their lap times half a second behind Zhou.
But, it wasn’t too long before the heavy hitters of Red Bull came out onto the track. Red Bull’s Mexican driver, Sergio Perez, quickly beat Zhou’s time by more than half a second as he obtained a 1:20.447 lap. However, it wasn’t before the natural suspects topped that time. With less than nine minutes to go, Leclerc topped the timing boards ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
On the other hand, Mercedes’ performance in practice looks to be coming into fruition as both Mercedes demoted Perez down to P6, before Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas knocked the Mexican down to P7.
While the majority of the field went out to improve their times, Leclerc, Sainz and Verstappen remained in their respective garages as they were comfortably inside the top three.
Eliminated:
20. Nicholas Latifi, Williams
19. Alexander Albon, Williams
18. Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
17. Fernando Alonso, Alpine
16. Sebastian Vettel, Aston Martin
Q2
After two minutes since the green light, on the pit exit, signalled the start of Q2, the cars finally went back out onto the track. The Mercedes duo were the first drivers to set their lap times on the board as Hamilton set the Q3 benchmark to beat, a 1:19.794. But this time was soon beaten by his teammate, Russell with a 1:19.470 (0.324 seconds quicker).
Compared to the Ferrari’s and Red Bull’s; Perez – P3, Leclerc – P4, Sainz – P5 and Verstappen was P6.
At the other end of the table, after the first set of Q2 runs, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was only 0.281 seconds away from safety in P11 while Gasly was dead last 1.5 seconds away from a place in Q3.
In a similar fashion to Q1, only Russell, Hamilton and Leclerc were the only drivers to remain in their garages as the rest of the field returned to the track in the final minutes.
Norris briefly found himself inside the Q3 positions but he exceeded track limits at turn 12. As a result, the young Briton was dropped down to P11 and out of qualifying.
Eliminated:
15. Guanyu Zhou, Alfa Romeo
14. Pierre Gasly, Alpha Tauri
13. Yuki Tsunoda, Alpha Tauri
12. Esteban Ocon, Alpine
11. Lando Norris, McLaren
Q3
While the Haas drivers of Kevin Magnussen and Mick Schumacher were the first ones to set the initial lap times of Q3, with the former on top, Hamilton set the provisional pole time with a 1:19.664. However, this was soon beaten by Spain’s home hero, Carlos Sainz. But, this was also beaten by Verstappen who reset the provisional pole benchmark, a 1:19.073.
As Leclerc drove around the final chicane, his rear tyres lost grip and began to slide as he entered turn 14. As a result, the Monegasque driver was forced to quickly return to the pit lane to swap his ruined soft tyres for a fresh set. When the #16 Ferrari driver made his way back out onto the track, his initial misfortune meant he only had one opportunity to topple Verstappen from pole position.
With only one chance, one opportunity to overthrow Verstappen, it was a superb lap from Leclerc. As Verstappen claimed his car lost power, the Ferrari Monegasque blitzed his car to pole position with a 1:18.750. However, this only demoted the Dutch world champion down to P2, as Sainz rounded out the top three.
Top 10:
10. Mick Schumacher, Haas
9. Daniel Ricciardo, McLaren
8. Kevin Magnussen, Haas
7. Valtteri Bottas, Alfa Romeo
6. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
5. Sergio Perez, Red Bull
4. George Russell, Mercedes
3. Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
2. Max Verstappen, Red Bull
1. Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
That’s it for the article: F1 Spanish Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc secures pole in qualifying! What a lap! Who do you think will win the race tomorrow? Let us know in the comments!
Read more Formula One here!
- F1 Spanish Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc tops final practice
- F1 Spanish GP: Charles Leclerc tops FP2 as Mercedes look promising
- F1 Spanish Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc tops FP1
- F1 Miami Grand Prix Review
To keep up to date with the latest news from Apex Motorsports, follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook!
Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.
I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
Kamron Kent
Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.
