Ferrari star clinches first pole position of F1’s new era in F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2022

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Charles Leclerc captured the first pole position of Formula 1’s new era last night at the F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2022 at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir. Leclerc shone brightest under lights and put Ferrari at the front for Sunday’s 57-lap night race after clocking an ultra-quick best lap time of one minute 30.558 seconds in Q3 of qualifying.

It was the 10th pole position of his career and his second at BIC, previously achieving the feat in 2019. “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 after qualifying. “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. “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 the pole.” Leclerc beat out reigning drivers’ world champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing by the narrowest of margins. Verstappen’s top lap was 1:30.681. “Overall, it’s not a bad position to be in, of course, you always want more but this is a positive start to the season,” said Verstappen. “I think we have a good race car which is important and with it being the start of the season, there are still a lot of things to learn.

“The Ferraris are of course very close and it’s going to be a tough battle, they have two strong drivers so it’s going to be exciting. The weather is meant to be warmer tomorrow so it’ll be a bit tougher on the tyres.

As a team we just have to see how competitive we are in the race, it’s a long season and a lot can happen.” Carlos Sainz came a close third with a 1:30.687 lap to confirm the strong pace of Ferrari in Bahrain while starting alongside him in the second row will be Sergio Perez, who qualified fourth with the fastest mark of 1:30.921 in the second Red Bull car.

Lewis Hamilton (1:31.238) for Mercedes will start fifth and former teammate Valtteri Bottas (1:31.560), now with Alfa Romeo, will be beside him in sixth; while seventh is Kevin Magnussen (1:31.808) for Haas and eighth Fernando Alonso (1:32.195) for Alpine. Completing the first 10 on the grid and rounding off the Q3 participants are George Russell (1:32.216), who qualified ninth, and AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly (1:32.338). “To be on the third row in our first qualifying together is a big achievement and we need to be satisfied – both me and the team,” said Bottas, who is in his first season with Alfa Romeo after moving from Mercedes.

Smooth

“My session was really smooth and I improved a little bit in every run, which is what you set out to do in qualifying. It’s an important moment for us as it shows we can be up here. I am proud of the job everyone did, here and at the factory: we knew we had a chance to be in Q3 but it was good to actually do it when everyone turned up with everything they had. “Now we focus on the race: our long-run pace looked even better than on the single lap, so we can be in the fight.

The top four are probably out of reach for everyone, but it would be nice to have a battle with Mercedes. In any case, this is the start of our journey and I want us to look forward and not back: the objective is to be up here at the flag and bring home good points.” Said Alonso, who is a three-time winner in Bahrain: “I’m happy with today’s qualifying because after the winter you never know exactly where the team’s performance is going to be.

Every new season you can have positive or negative surprises, so to see both cars fighting for the top ten, is a good start. “It’ll be interesting to see how the new cars can fight tomorrow and it’s great to see a mixed-up grid. It seems easier to follow the cars ahead, whether it provides more action on track we shall soon see, and the first couple of laps will be interesting. Tyre degradation and the resulting race strategy are going to be critical considerations for tomorrow.” Eliminated earlier from Q2 were Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Haas’s Mick Schumacher, McLaren’s Lando Norris, Williams’s Alexander Albon, and Alfa Romeo rookie Guanyu Zhou. Eliminated from Q1 were AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, Aston Martin’s Nico Hulkenberg, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin and Nicholas Latifi of Williams.

Stroll commented: “We are disappointed with today’s result and it is not what we expected after a positive FP3. We made some changes to the car and perhaps they were in the wrong direction. “In qualifying, we did not have the grip to extract the performance. We need to go over the data and understand it so we can learn from this. The early races are going to be a learning curve as we try to understand the car more. “Tomorrow is a new day, so we will come back ready to try to make progress in the race.” Today’s F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2022 is scheduled for a 6 pm start. It will be the 18th running of the race and it kicks off F1’s new era.

Earlier in the day yesterday, Verstappen continued Red Bull’s impressive practice form after topping the weekend’s third session yesterday. Verstappen registered the fastest lap of 1:32.544 in the hourlong afternoon runs. Leclerc was 0.096s behind while Perez in the other Red Bull car was classified third 0.247s slower.

Russell was fourth, Sainz in the second Ferrari fifth, and Hamilton sixth in the other Mercedes. Magnussen, Bottas, Zhou and Stroll completed the top 10. Classified 11th to 20th, respectively, were Norris, Hulkenberg, Gasly, Schumacher, Ricciardo, Alonso, Albon, Ocon, Latifi and Tsuonda.