Charles Leclerc stuns with first F1 pole position of 2022 in Bahrain
Charles Leclerc has opened his account with the first pole position of the 2022 Formula 1 season, outclassing the rest of the pack in Bahrain.
Charles Leclerc claims the first pole position in the new era of Formula 1. (Scuderia Ferrari)
"We knew that it was just a matter of time before we were back in the mix and I’d like to thank our whole team for the hard work that everyone has done to put our car back where it belongs," said Leclerc.
"We are all happy with today’s result, but at the same time we are aware that we can’t relax and have to keep pushing because our competitors are strong."
Ferrari seems to have the upper hand in the new era of F1 regulations, with a one-three in the opening qualifying session as Leclerc breezed to the top of the timesheets.
"We focused on short runs so far in the weekend in preparation for qualifying and did a lot of high fuel laps during testing, so we have gotten to know the car in different situations and it feels good."
"The trickiest part today was putting the tyres in the right window, but at the end I put it all together and it feels really good to be back on pole."
Leclerc was fastest in Q1, with both Ferrari drivers completing just one run as they dominated the early running.
Verstappen was third-fastest, also only completing one run, as Yuki Tsunoda, Nick Hulkenberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll, and Nicholas Latifi were all knocked out.
"It’s been a tough weekend so far, unfortunately," said Ricciardo after qualifying 18th.
"Last time I drove in Barcelona, we left pretty optimistic but, we’ve got new kinds of challenges here this weekend."
"With the lost time last week, trying to get up to speed, it proved trickier than I hoped."
"There’s a lot of work to do, and today we didn’t have a good result, but we’ll work on it and look at how we move forward tomorrow."
Max Verstappen was able to split the Ferraris to put his Red Bull on the front row. (Getty Images/Red Bull Content Pool)
Red Bull hit back in Q2, with Verstappen setting the fastest time off just one run, while the Ferraris mad two attempts to best him.
The best they could manage was second and third, with Esteban Ocon, Mick Schumacher, Lando Norris, Alex Albon, and Zhou Guanyu knocked out.
The first real battle of the 2022 season came in Q3, with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell coming out first, but neither were in competitive form, finishing the session in fifth and ninth respectively.
After the first runs it was Sainz who held pole position ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen, with just 0.056 seconds separating the top three.
Leclerc improved with a blistering final lap of 1:30.558, which could not be beaten by Sainz or Verstappen, although Verstappen was able to improve to second, putting his Red Bull on the front row alongside the Monégasque driver.
"We are extremely pleased with today’s performance: we were convinced the potential was there to do well and the fact that both our drivers were in the fight for pole says a lot about the strength of our package – the car, the drivers and everyone who gives their all every day both at the track and back in Maranello," said Mattia Binotto, Team Principal & Managing Director at Scuderia Ferrari.
"This pole position is a reward for all the hard work of the entire team and it’s even more important when one considers where we were two years ago."
"We have always said that to excel against such strong opponents we have to be perfect and I think, today, as a team we were very good."
"I know we have the best driver pairing and I feel that was shown to be the case today."
The Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix gets underway on Monday morning at 2.00am.
