Leclerc shines again on Saturday and takes pole for French Formula 1 GP

Formula One took to the Paul Ricard track late this morning to set the starting grid for the French Grand Prix. The track temperature was 55°C amidst the heat wave that has made central Europe suffer this July - an important fruit, yet another one, of man-made climate change. On the track, what was seen was a lot of care with the tires: running out of rubber was an easy task in this climate. In the midst of balancing lap speed launched with tire control, Ferrari pulled ahead of Red Bull. Charles Leclerc flew through and took his seventh pole-position of the 2022 season.

Leclerc had not been having such a brilliant weekend until this moment. But in qualifying, he grew. He led Q1 and was second only to his teammate in Q2. Although Carlos Sainz indicated that he understood the track better than Leclerc, he had a serious penalty and would start 19th. This way, he took the opportunity to give his teammate the vacuum in the final lap and helped the team to get another pole position.

The help was primordial, it has to be said. Verstappen did a wonderful lap at the last attempt, the second best time of the weekend, but still finished 0s304 behind the Monegasque. Leclerc, with the help of Sainz, achieved 1min30s872.

Outside the front row, Sergio Pérez will be joined by Lewis Hamilton right behind, followed by Lando Norris and George Russell, Fernando Alonso and Yuki Tsunoda. Sainz and Kevin Magnussen were in Q3, but are punished, so they will start in the last two places. The top-10 is completed by Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon.

GRANDE PRÊMIO follows LIVE and IN REAL TIME all the activities of the French GP weekend. On Sunday, the start is scheduled for 10:00 am (GMT-3).

Check out how the standings went:

Q1 - Leclerc in the lead and Gasly is surprisingly eliminated

For those who expected to see a less hot track in qualifying than in TL3, due to the time closer to the French evening, a negative surprise: 55°C was the temperature of the asphalt at the time the green flag was waved to open the start in Paul Ricard.

Lance Stroll led the line of cars and officially started the grid. The track quickly filled up and everyone was trying to find their way around on soft tires. Especially in a heat like this, where making a mistake on a set of tires means losing rubber, no one was willing to risk it. The installation laps were extremely slow so as not to sacrifice the C4, soft tires of the week.

The first timed lap came with Pierre Gasly, but Charles Leclerc already emerged chilling and put 1min31s727 on the clock. More than enough to qualify the Ferrari for Q2 and, moreover, 0s162 better than what Max Verstappen presented in the sequence.

Verstappen was more concerned about Sergio Pérez, complaining about the traffic caused by his teammate. "What is Checo doing, man?" he questioned on the radio. Hamilton also hit traffic in front of him, with Esteban Ocon's Alpine, and he didn't like it very much.

Punished for changing four engine components, Kevin Magnussen would be 19th or 20th - he would only avoid the last place in the unlikely possibility of beating the also punished Carlos Sainz. Therefore, the Dane avoided wasting tires and did not leave the pits after ten minutes of TL1. Sainz also took his time, but by then he had time.

The fight for elimination was starting to heat up between Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Williams, Haas, and AlphaTauri. But Magnussen, when he finally appeared, was very fast and jumped up to sixth place. Alexander Albon was also doing well when he spun alone, caused a localized yellow flag, and lost his last chance to improve his time. He was among the qualifiers, but now he would have to rely on luck.

Albon's spin got in the way of those coming down that sector of the track: Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. The latter, however, were more than guaranteed a place in Q2.

When it was time for the decision, Mick Schumacher flew up and jumped to tenth place. The celebration lasted only moments, because the race direction understood that the German had disrespected the limits of the track at turn three and deleted his time. Thus, what had been a double top-10 for Haas became Schumacher's elimination in Q1.

Schumacher was 19th, better only than Nicholas Latifi. Pierre Gasly, doing well in free practice, was a surprising elimination with 16th place - Yuki Tsunoda, his teammate, was 13th. Lance Stroll and Guanyu Zhou, in that order, were between Gasly and Schumacher. Daniel Ricciardo was 15th and narrowly escaped. Haas asked the commissioners to reconsider, but nothing did. The difference between 12th and 17th placed was less than 0s1.

Leclerc closed the race as the fastest, but still charged Ferrari. He disagreed with the fact that he was ordered to do one more fast lap after the 1min31s7. A reminder that all those eliminated from Q1 gain two grid positions because of the punishments to Sainz and Magnussen.

Q2 - Punished? Sainz leads and Magnussen advances to Q3

Q2 took a while to start because of Haas' complaint and the subsequent commissioners' review, but nothing changed. With everything okay, Mercedes sent its duo to the track. Hamilton and Russell used soft tires already used to test the situation initially and soon took 0s5 of difference from Lando Norris.

After that, normality was established. Perez went 1min32s1, and then Verstappen came home 1min31s9. Leclerc was slower than his rivals this time, but Sainz went by in an incredible 1min31s0 and took the lead by 0s9. Probably enough to qualify for Q3 with punishment and everything.

While Mercedes continued to not show up with new tires, Russell fell into the elimination zone and was overtaken by Sebastian Vettel, who appeared to get a lot out of the Aston Martin by putting in the green car in tenth place. Ocon, Albon and Tsunoda were the three others in the elimination zone as the end of Q2 approached.

Valtteri Bottas was doing well. While Zhou had fallen with great difficulty in Q1, the Finn was fighting hard to make it to Q3. There were still a lot of people to go, however. Russell appeared on new tires and entered the top-10, but Hamilton took longer and even fell to 13th place. But he recovered and was fifth.

It was Tsunoda who ended up being the driver who qualified for Q3 while his teammate was eliminated in Q1. At the last attempt, he jumped to 10th place. Along with Sainz, Leclerc, Verstappen, Pérez, Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, Russell, Magnussen, and Norris was qualified. Ricciardo, Ocon, Bottas, Vettel and Albon were eliminated.

Leclerc did a flying lap at the end to overtake the Red Bulls, who had already collected to the pits. As the two punished advanced again, all those eliminated from Q2 also gain two positions on the official starting grid.

Q3 - Leclerc overtakes Verstappen for pole

The first round of fast laps started immediately as Q3 began, because Sainz was the one who took the track right away. The Spaniard took his foot off in the final stages of the spin and dropped out, while Pérez went for 1min31s6.

Despite the Mexican's good start, Leclerc took the block by setting 1min31s209. Excellent, yes, but almost no margin of advantage: Verstappen was only 0s008 slower. Russell was fourth, with Hamilton fifth and Norris, Alonso, and Tsunoda in the sequence. Sainz and Magnussen had no lap.

While Pérez and Verstappen were thinking about their times, Ferrari released Sainz immediately in front of Leclerc for the final attempt - and on used tires. An indication that the Spaniard would work to yield a vacuum to the Monegasque in the quest for pole.

It looked like it was going to happen, and it did. Leclerc did a better start sector than the previous lap and took the opportunity to grab the vacuum from Sainz in the middle sector. It worked. When it was time to complete the lap, 1min30s872. "Great Carlos!" he thanked on the Ferrari radio.

Verstappen was also very fast, but without the vacuum he didn't even come close: he was 1min31s176, 0s304 slower. Pérez was third, followed by Hamilton and Norris, ahead of Russell. Alonso and Tsunoda were in positions seven and eight. Sainz and Magnussen didn't even complete a fast lap and, despite their participation in Q3, will start 19th and 20th because of the engine changes Ferrari and Haas made to their cars.

F1 2022, French GP, Paul Ricard, Qualifying: