#F1 #LasVegasGP #Qualifying: @CharlesLeclerc storms to 23rd-career pole.
Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-23, celebrates after taking his 23rd-career pole position in Qualifying at the Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2023, Las Vegas Strip Circuit, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States of America. Image credit to Mark Thompson/Getty Images. Leclerc Las Vegas GP Pole, 2023 Las Vegas GP Qualifying, F1 Las Vegas GP Qualifying.
Leclerc Las Vegas GP Pole – Charles Leclerc scored his 23rd pole position for tomorrow’s Las Vegas GP pipping his Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz by 0.044 seconds with the latter taking a 10-placed grid penalty for a power-unit component changes as a result of damage from running over the manhole in opening practice, dropping the Spaniard to 12th which promotes Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ George Russell to second and third on the grid.
In Q3, Leclerc held provisional pole with a purple sector one and two personal bests on his initial flying tour with a 1:33.021 and was 0.022 seconds quicker than team-mate Sainz who scored a purple sector three whilst Verstappen was a further 0.083 off in third with a purple middle sector.
On the final flyers, Leclerc was down on his sector one effort, but improved with purple sector two and set personal best sector three to post the pole time of a 1:32.726 as Sainz fell short by 0.044 seconds setting personal bests whilst Verstappen aborted his last hot-lap to take third.
Russell improved on his final flying lap to take fourth and demote Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Williams Racing duo Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant to fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.
Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas was eighth and ahead of Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who took ninth and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso completed the top ten.
In the second qualifying stage, which was topped by Leclerc, after late improvements from Sargeant and Gasly, Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez were the shock eliminatees being knocked out by 0.028 and 0.046 seconds respectively in 11th and 12th.
Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg qualified in 13th and in-front of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who took 14th with the latter starting five-places back due to a penalty for overtaking under yellows in FP3 whilst AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo was the slowest of the Q2 runners in 15th.
In the opening segment, which was topped by Leclerc, following a late improvement by Stroll, McLaren’s Lando Norris missed out on a Q2 appearance by 0.020 seconds wounding up 16th whilst the other MCL60 entry of Oscar Piastri also was eliminated for the Woking based-squad in 19th after failing to improve on his final flyer.
Alpine’s Esteban Ocon placed 17th and ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who took 18th as AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda brought up the rear.
Stroll is currently under investigation by the stewards for failing to slow under waved yellows at turn five and could send the Canadian to the back-of-the-grid for Saturday night’s Grand Prix.
Hamilton, Russell, Albon, Zhou, Gasly and Bottas were also noted by stewards for failing to follow race director’s instructions – maximum delta time.
You can see the full Formula 1 Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2023 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1225/las-vegas/qualifying.html
2023 Las Vegas GP Qualifying – The Top Three
2023 Las Vegas GP Pole Position – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-23, 1:32.726:
“Of course, I’m happy – first in Las Vegas, to be starting from pole is great. But I’m disappointed with my laps in Q3, I didn’t do a good job, but it was enough. I hope to put it all together in the race, that’s where we struggle. We are starting from pole so I can’t complain!”
2nd Place – Carlos Sainz, #55, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-23, +0.044s:
“First of all an outstanding job by the team – we’ve dominated qualifying after a tough Friday to put the car back together again. Still disappointed from yesterday I’m not going to lie, I’m still in a very bad mood but it is what it is.”
3rd Place – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB19, +0.378s:
“It’s quite cold, quite slippery. It was enjoyable out there, but I think we maximised today. We’ve been lacking one-lap performance, so I hope for more from the race.”
#F1 #LasVegasGP FP3: @GeorgeRussell63 pips @OscarPiastri by 0.398s as red flag ends session early.
#F1 #LasVegasGP FP2: @CharlesLeclerc heads @ScuderiaFerrari one-two in delayed session.
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