Leclerc hails 'amazing teamwork' with Sainz to clinch pole

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Charles Leclerc was celebrating another pole position on Saturday after qualifying for the French Grand Prix at Circuit Paul Ricard.

But he was quick to thank his Ferrari team mate Carlos Sainz for the crucial role the Spaniard played in the final round of the session.

After Red Bull's Max Verstappen was quickest in final practice earlier in the day, it was always going to be a close-fought battle over who would come out on top.

Read also: Leclerc slipstreams to pole over Verstappen in France

Leclerc has a slim 0.164s advantage over his rival in the first round, but Sainz put in an impressive lap to top Q2 - despite knowing that he will start from the back row of the grid due to penalties for taking additional engine components.

After making his point, Sainz could have sat back and taken no part in Q3, but instead was at the head of the line going out on track in order to be able to provide Leclerc with a 'tow' down the Mistral straight into Signes.

The first time gave Leclerc enough of a boost to take provisional pole by eighth thousandths of a second, but the second and final run was much more effective and put Leclerc three tenths out of reach.

“It’s a great lap,” Leclerc told the media in parc ferme after the end of qualifying. “I’ve struggled all weekend to put a lap together.

"I managed to put it in, but I have to say that I also had the help of Carlos and that was amazing teamwork.

"Without Carlos it would have been much more close," he acknowledged. "So huge thanks to Carlos and I hope that he can join us back in the fight for the win tomorrow.”

Leclerc admitted that he had been surprised by how much the balance of power had changed over the three practice sessions and then going into qualifying itself.

"It’s difficult to understand what the Red Bull guys did yesterday because there was loads of difference in terms of lap time.

“After Q1 I was very surprised by the pace we had,” he said. “Also in Q2 we were very strong. So somehow, we managed to turn that around for qualifying but it’s a good surprise.

Now the big question will be whether Leclerc can convert his pole position into a race lead when the lights go out on Sunday.

In recent races, Ferrari's qualifying superiority hasn't been matched by race pace, with tyre management and degradation issues continually thwarting the team's hopes of taking victory.

Austria saw Leclerc notably faster than Verstappen for the first time, and he'll be hoping to pull off the same success again tomorrow.

“It feels good. It feels good," he insisted. "So let’s see how it goes.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.