Charles Leclerc equals Stoffel Vandoorne’s consecutive pole positions record
Where will he stop? Charles Leclerc left no doubt about the outcome of the qualifying session at Silverstone: he finishes with over four tenths of a second ahead of his closest title rival, Oliver Rowland.
2017 could be the year of all records for Charles Leclerc. In any case, he has just equalled at least one, that of consecutive poles, equalling the six achieved by Stoffel Vandoorne at the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015. It’s simple: since the start of the season, no one has beaten him in the exercise. In addition, he has the satisfaction of opening up the biggest gap of the season.
He was not therefore unsettled by the change in the weekend schedule, which saw the free practice sessions take place on Thursday afternoon and not on Friday as usual. So he had a lot of time between the two sessions but his experience in GP3 could be useful: « In GP3, it could have been even worse, practicing either very late at night or very early in the morning. The conditions could be very different. At least here, we practiced at the same time. »
This time, he beats Oliver Rowland, his closest rival in the championship. The British driver seems to have found the key in the exercise, after facing some difficulties since the beginning of the season: “I am already closer and the second sector was really good. Obviously, I’m not thrilled to be second, but I’m here to fight. We know we have a very good race pace because it has been the case in every race since the start of the season. At least, we can fight.”
While he had adopted a different race strategy in Austria to compensate for a lack of performance in qualifying, he does not intend to take unnecessary risks as the championship is still long: “I am always fighting from 7th, 8th, or 5th place. I am therefore already damaging my tires but we still have a good pace. So, I can start managing them from the start and put some pressure on him. We will be able to fight tomorrow.”
Norman Nato could position himself as a referee since the French driver intends to fully take advantage of his 3rd place on the grid to disrupt the championship contenders.
In any case, the contrast could not have been more significant between the two Prema teammates, since while Charles Leclerc will start again from the front, Antonio Fuoco had a tumultuous session and will start from the last row on the grid.
From our special correspondent in Silverstone
