Formula 1: China’s Zhou Guanyu targets top 10 finish at Spanish Grand Prix, Leclerc on pole after flying lap
- Leclerc’s stunning lap catapults him from 10th to pole at Circuit de Catalunya
- Guanyu will start 15th on the grid but says car has pace to challenge for points in Barcelona
Ferrari’s Formula One leader Charles Leclerc performed under pressure to come back from a spin with a stunning lap that sent him from 10th to pole position for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Main rival and reigning world champion Max Verstappen, who had looked like taking the top slot for Red Bull, had to settle for second after a late loss of speed wrecked his final effort at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Leclerc’s lap of one minute 18.750 seconds was just over three tenths of a second quicker than Verstappen’s best with the top two continuing a battle that has been the talk of the season.
“I had [some] moments on my lap but at the end I made it stick and I’m very, very happy with pole position,” said Leclerc.
China’s Zhou Guanyu had to settle for 15th place on the grid, but said he thought his car had the pace to challenge for a place in the top 10 in Sunday’s race.
“I’m optimistic about the race, as we definitely have the pace to fight for the top 10, but I’m convinced we could have battled for P10 or P11 today,” Zhou said after qualifying on Saturday. “We wanted to avoid the situation we had in Miami, where we got stuck in traffic at the end of Q1, so we chose to go for three runs on soft tyres in the first part of qualifying. It was the safe choice although, in hindsight, my second lap would have been enough to get into Q2.
“The second segment was always going to be tricky, with no fresh tyres, but that is what we had and we got the most out of it. We’ll aim to make up some ground tomorrow and end in the top 10 at the end of the day.”