Charles Leclerc: “The feeling in the car has been great all weekend”

Charles Leclerc took his ninth pole position of the 2022 FIA Formula 1 World Championship season on Saturday amid tricky conditions at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore.

The Scuderia Ferrari driver made it through the wet opening two segments of Qualifying and then took top spot in Q3 with a time of 1:49.412, less than a tenth of a second clear of both Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Pérez and Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team’s Lewis Hamilton.

Leclerc admitted it was an exciting session despite the tricky conditions that only saw the dry Pirelli tyres appear in Q3 after intermediate tyres were needed in both Q1 and Q2.

“With track conditions changing throughout, it was a tricky but exciting qualifying,” said Leclerc.  “We were very quick on the Intermediates in Q1 and Q2, then had to start again from zero on the slicks in Q3.

“There were some damp spots of tarmac here and there and you really had to adapt to the track evolution.  The feeling in the car has been great all weekend and I look forward to racing here again tomorrow.”

“It’s frustrating to see that a tenth and a half cost us four positions” – Carlos Sainz Jr.

Team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr. will line-up on the grid in fourth, with the Spaniard less than two-tenths of a second down on Leclerc at the end of Qualifying.

Despite a positive looking session, Sainz believed he had the pace in his car to make it to pole position, with a mistake costing him dearly particularly with how close the top four were.

Sainz says they will look into what they could have done better overnight before focusing on how they can move forward and fight for the victory on Sunday.

“It was a challenging qualifying today, one of the toughest of the season due to the conditions and the amount of traffic at a street circuit like this,” said Sainz.

“I think we did a decent session overall, but it’s frustrating to see that a tenth and a half cost us four positions, especially after reviewing my fastest lap, which was looking very good for pole until a snap at turn 16.

“We’ll look into it and check what we could have done better, but now we need to focus on tomorrow. We can still get a very good result from here and we know how long and eventful these Singapore races can get. I’m ready to fight for everything.”

Carlos Sainz Jr. felt he had the pace to take pole position in Singapore – Credit: Octane Photographic Ltd