Actually, the qualifying for Mick Schumacher is a ray of hope after the Formula 1 weekend in France has not gone well so far. But the Haas driver loses his starting place in Q2 after a jury decision. At the front, Charles Leclerc prevails over Max Verstappen.
Thanks to a clever slipstream maneuver, Ferrari star Charles Leclerc secured first place on the grid for the Formula 1 race in France. Protected by the car of his teammate Carlos Sainz, the Monegasque was unbeatable in Le Castellet on Saturday and raced to pole position in a completely superior manner. On his fastest lap, the 24-year-old was more than three tenths of a second ahead of world champion Max Verstappen in the Red Bull, who had no chance in the heat on the Mediterranean Sea. His Mexican stable rival Sergio Perez was third.
“We are in a very good position. Hopefully we can drive home victory tomorrow,” said Leclerc, second in the World Championship, after the 16th pole position of his career and immediately thanked his helpful teammate: “Thanks to Carlos, it worked. Without Carlos would have been a lot closer. Hopefully he’ll be back in the fight tomorrow.”
The Scuderia were able to tactic with Sainz as the 27-year-old had no chance of a place at the top. He was punished for changing technical elements and has to hunt from the back on Sunday (3 p.m. / Sky and in the ntv.de live ticker). Ferrari cleverly exploited this circumstance one day before the Grand Prix and twice used Sainz as a powerful draft horse for Leclerc. In perfect interaction, however, Red Bull had no chance of counterattacking. “Ferrari made optimal use of the slipstream game,” said Red Bulls advisor Helmut Marko: “But the gap isn’t as drastic as it looks.”
Verstappen was also convinced of this, going into the twelfth round of the season as the world championship leader with 38 points ahead of Leclerc. “Our strength is not qualifying, we had a few problems. It was trickier than I had hoped,” said the Dutchman, who has been waiting for a Grand Prix victory for over a month: “We have a good race car, we are fast on the straights, we can make good use of that tomorrow.”
Sebastian Vettel was 14th in the Aston Martin, Mick Schumacher only came in 19th place. Actually, the Haas driver would have ended up further ahead, but the 23-year-old’s fastest lap was subsequently canceled because he was forbidden to leave the track and allegedly left the track “It didn’t look like it from our point of view. If you (the race management) think that, there is no reason to argue. You will not change your mind,” said Schumacher on Sky: ” It’s a shame! But then we just have to do more in the race and overtake more.”
Only Schumacher’s second-best lap, which was only enough for position 19, was counted. The son of record world champion Michael Schumacher will not have to start from this starting position, since Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari and Kevin Magnussen in the second Haas will each start from the end of the field after penalties. Schumacher should start from 17th place, for Vettel from 12th.
Sainz and Magnussen are penalized for replacing parts on the drive unit, each exceeding the allowable limit. Sainz had previously been sanctioned on Friday after training with new control electronics for the drive unit.
