Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc Claims Pole For 2022 Italian GP – Sport Grill

Roundup of Saturday’s action as Charles Leclerc clinched pole position for 2022 Italian Grand Prix.

With Williams’ Alex Albon sidelined for the rest of the weekend through appendicitis, it set the tone for a dramatic Saturday at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy, in which nine drivers took a variety of penalties at end of Qualifying.

Leclerc however defied the prospect of inheriting pole position via penalties as he emerged fastest in Qualifying to clinch a second F1 pole position specifically at Monza – having done so in 2019 – and his 17th pole position overall.

Now, here’s a full roundup of FP3 and Qualifying at Monza.

FP3

A dramatic start to Saturday’s running saw Williams announce prior to FP3 that Albon was ruled out of the remainder of the weekend, due to appendicitis which meant that his seat was taken by De Vries who had ran in FP1 for Aston Martin just under 24 hours earlier.

Haas meanwhile announced that Schumacher’s FP3 participation was in doubt due to a clutch issue but once the session began, it was Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas who was first out on track.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez however set the initial benchmark time of 1m 23.448 on medium tyres, ahead of Bottas who ran his opening stint on the soft tyre.

Perez however found 1.3 seconds across his next two laps to eventually lower his benchmark time to 1m 22.148, before Verstappen went quickest with 1m 21.872 on his first competitive flier on medium tyres which the Dutchman held at the halfway mark of session ahead of Leclerc and Perez.

Attention eventually switched to a soft tyre Qualifying simulation after a mixture of race and one-lap pace simulations in the opening 40 minutes.

Nobody though was able to better Verstappen’s initial medium-tyre time before he posted 1m 21.252 in the 49th minute to finish fastest overall, as Leclerc, Perez, Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso rounded out the top five.

Elsewhere, De Vries finished 14th fastest in his first FP3 outing and only 0.097s slower than his teammate – Nicholas Latifi who was 13th fastest.

Schumacher eventually was able to get out in the final minutes and wound up 18th fastest ahead of his Haas teammate, Kevin Magnussen by 0.189s.

Qualifying

Q1

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was first out on track and set the initial benchmark time of 1m 24.231 but his time was quickly bettered by Yuki Tsunoda, Perez and Verstappen, until Leclerc went fastest on his first flier with 1m 21.280 albeit with Sainz’s slipstream.

Verstappen though responded with 1m 20.922 to go fastest again to top Q1 whilst the elimination zone compromised of; Magnussen, Bottas, Stroll, Schumacher and Vettel with five minutes left.

As the checkered flag fell, only Bottas avoided elimination at the expense of Latifi who qualified 16th ahead of Vettel, Stroll, Magnussen and Schumacher.

Q2

A quiet start to Q2 saw no drivers head out in the opening two minutes before several cars ventured out en mass, with Verstappen initially setting the benchmark of 1m 21.265, but Sainz on used softs produced 1m 20.878 to go fastest ahead of Leclerc.

The elimination zone upon completion of opening runs compromised of; Bottas, De Vries, Zhou, Ricciardo and Tsunoda, although the latter driver hadn’t set a lap time and didn’t come out for the final run either as he will start from the back of grid amongst several penalties.

Only Ricciardo was able to escape Q2 elimination at Esteban Ocon’s expense as Bottas, De Vries and Zhou all qualified in 12, 13 and 14th positions respectively.

Q3

Like in Q2, no driver ventured out in the opening two minutes of Q3 but Norris was eventually first out on track, as everyone soon filed out onto the circuit with Sainz surprisingly behind Leclerc and not providing a slipstream despite starting at the back of the grid with a power unit penalty.

Once opening runs were completed, Sainz headed the order with 1m 20.584 ahead of Leclerc, Verstappen and Perez,  as Russsell, Norris, Hamilton, Ricciardo, Gasly and Alonso rounded out the top ten ahead of application of various penalties for Sainz, Verstappen, Perez and Hamilton.

As the checkered flag fell, Leclerc snatched pole with 1m 20.161 ahead of Verstappen, Sainz, Perez, Hamilton, Russell. Norris, Ricciardo, Gasly and Alonso.

Upon application of grid penalties for various power unit component changes by nine drivers, Leclerc will share the front row with Russell followed by Norris who will start third.