Charles Leclerc remains the man of Saturday. The Ferrari driver secured his fourth consecutive pole position in qualifying in Baku – the sixth in eight races this season. And especially in Azerbaijan Monegasque did not expect it at all. “I thought Red Bull was strong. Especially in Q1 and Q2 I couldn’t see that we would be faster,” he says.
“But it all came together on that last lap,” he enthuses. “I performed well again, so I’m extremely happy.” In the first attempt in Q3, Leclerc was half a tenth of a second slower than team-mate Carlos Sainz, but finally put in another great lap.
Leclerc found half a second in the Ferrari and not only clearly beat his team-mate in the end, but also kept the two Red Bulls at a distance. “I didn’t feel like I left a lot behind,” he says. “I always lost time in turn 2, but on the last lap I just slammed on the brakes and prayed it would be okay,” said Leclerc.
“It was pretty tight there and the last corner was a bit more difficult, but that was probably more due to the wind,” he says.
New rear wing works
It was important that Ferrari didn’t lose as much time in the last sector as in practice. In a way, Baku is always a compromise between the long straight and the twisty sectors before it.
The Scuderia had tried out a new rear wing in the second practice session, with which they wanted to be competitive on the straights. “We know that here in Baku the long straight is important for the lap time and you can’t lose too much time on the straight itself,” says Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto.
“So I think the rear wing was the right choice for the weekend,” said the Italian. It was not used in the first practice session, “simply because we believe that not only do you have a green track, but the drivers also need to gain confidence in the lap, and it was more important for us to start with the rear wing that we knew.”
This had a little more downforce, so Ferrari lost time in the last sector. But later they switched to the new variant, with which Binotto was quite satisfied. “It was also the first time we used him,” he says. “But it agreed with the data we expected from the simulations.”
Leclerc: Many poles, few wins
Leclerc also says after qualifying that the new package was “quite positive” without losing competitiveness in the middle sector. “We’re pretty happy with the new package and it works as expected,” he says.
Leclerc now has to take his advantage to the finish line on Sunday, which he has rarely done so far this season. Because despite five pole positions before, the Monegasse 2022 was only able to win two races.
Baku was even Leclerc’s 15th pole position in his Formula 1 career. However, he has only won four Grands Prix. The trend needs to be stopped.