Sainz celebrates Leclerc's pole position in Paul Ricard: "It was our plan for the weekend".

Carlos Sainz played a key role in Saturday's qualifying session at Paul Ricard, which gave Charles Leclerc his seventh pole of the 2022 season.

The Spaniard was punished for changing the entire power unit and will start 19th, but he played for the team and gave the Monegasque a vacuum, which allowed his Ferrari teammate to set the fastest lap of the weekend and start in front at the French circuit.

Sainz detailed the team's plan to enable him to achieve this great result. "That's what we planned all weekend for us to get to Q3 and give Charles [Leclerc] the vacuum. Even though we didn't practice, I knew how to do it and everything worked out really well."

Motivation was not lacking for Smooth Operator in qualifying, even though it was already defined before practice that he would start in the last positions. Carlos set the fastest time in Q2, with 1min31s081, until he was overtaken by Leclerc.

"My lap times proved that I was very fast. This car on all tracks is very fast, it's all about getting the start and the strategy right, just look at what we are doing this weekend, I was fast all the time," said Sainz.

The Ferrari driver regretted the change that dropped him back on the grid, but he praised his teammate's achievement. "It's frustrating, but I'm happy that Charles is on pole. Unfortunately, he will have to fight alone tomorrow against Max [Verstappen], but I believe he can do it very well.

Finally, Sainz tried to criticize Ferrari for the difficulties faced during the season, which put the team in second place in the Constructors' World Championship. This year we received a lot of criticism for our strategies, but today we showed that we get along very well and I'm willing to help as much as possible," he added.

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