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Charles Leclerc was quick to praise Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz for helping him secure pole position for the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard – but just how big an effect did Sainz’s effort have?
With engine component changes over the limit for the season consigning Sainz to a back-of-the-grid start regardless of the qualifying outcome, the Spaniard progressed into the pole shootout anyway but then focused on aiding Leclerc with a tow – which he acknowledged afterwards was always the plan for the weekend.
On both of Leclerc’s push laps, he was there to give his fellow Ferrari driver a slipstream coming out of the chicane on the Mistral straight and through the flat-out Signes right-hander.
Leclerc’s first lap was just 0.008s clear of main rival Max Verstappen’s initial effort, and Verstappen did surpass that initial benchmark by a few hundredths on his second attempt.
Yet Leclerc’s own second attempt was a marked improvement, both in terms of his execution and the tow, leaving him three tenths clear at the conclusion of the session.
“It’s quite tricky to get it exactly right,” said Leclerc of the tow. “I think the first lap, maybe we were a bit too close in 8-9 [the chicane] and I lost a little bit there, and I just drove not in the best way possible.
“And then in the second lap we adapted that and it was better, and that was the lap. We did a good job, communication-wise, and Carlos helping me was amazing.”
Both Verstappen and Leclerc effectively acknowledged that Sainz’s tow served an insurance-like purpose for the Monegasque, who should’ve still had enough pace to grab pole even without it.
“I don’t think it’s 0.3[s worth],” said Verstappen. “Of course, it’s quite a bit, maybe Charles can tell you more exactly how much it is – but overall I just look at myself of course, what could we have done better.
“And I think overall that final lap was, first of all, not a clean lap, just by being on the limit, trying to find that limit, I just had two moments that cost me a bit of laptime.
“Those things we have to figure out why they happen and how we can make it more predictable, let’s say it like that.”
“I think it’s around two tenths, what I remember in the car, compared to the lap in Q2 without the tow,” Leclerc suggested. “So it’s significant.
“It would have been a lot more tight with Max without the tow. But yeah, it was a nice help anyway.”
The two-tenth figure does strongly suggest Sainz had a very good shot at pole, given his own best lap in Q2 was a 1m31.081s – around two tenths off what a tow-assisted Leclerc managed in Q3.
“I think we executed it nicely,” Sainz said of the tow. “It’s a shame that it has to come on a weekend that I’m probably feeling the best with the car, and I’ve been very quick, I think my Q2 lap was up there.”
On Red Bull’s side, Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez qualified third, a tenth and a half off the Dutchman – which was much closer than he’d been to Verstappen through practice.
Verstappen, however, made it clear he in no way expected Perez to be asked to provide him a slipstream.
“No, I mean we are both of course trying to get the best possible qualifying result, it’s a bit different.
“Carlos is starting in the back. I think it was a smart thing to do – and probably if one of us [Red Bull drivers] had to start in the back, something similar can happen as well.”
