Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc claimed his fourth Formula One pole of the season Saturday for the Spanish Grand Prix, held at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain
Leclerc’s pole came despite him going for a spin in the track’s final chicane during his first qualifying lap in the third round.
Leclerc, who has won from the pole twice this season, recorded a lap time of 1:18.750. Leclerc now has 13 career poles.
He was followed by defending series champion Max Verstappen (1:19.073).
Verstappen, who has three wins through five races, was fastest in the second round and was making a final charge at the pole in the third round when his Red Bull car suffered an issue.
“We are starting second tomorrow which we can be happy about but it was a bit of a shame with the last run,” Verstappen said. “The DRS didn’t open so I backed out and aborted the lap as I was losing a lot of time, three or four tenths. That meant we didn’t get the opportunity to fight for pole, nevertheless, we will give it a good go tomorrow. Ferrari are looking pretty strong so it will be hard to beat them, they did a long run this morning and it looked strong. Tyre management is going to be really important tomorrow with the heat and you also need overall race pace. Hopefully we’ll have more pace tomorrow and there’s a long run into turn one so a lot can happen.”
The top five was completed by Carlos Sainz, George Russell and Sergio Perez. Lewis Hamilton was sixth.