As Ferrari take their first pole at Circuit Paul Ricard since 1990, Leclerc becomes the driver to have recorded the third-most poles with the Scuderia and Ricciardo records his worst qualifying run in nine years. Here are the facts and statistics from qualifying at the 2022 French Grand Prix!
LECLERC ON POLE
Charles Leclerc secured pole position for the 2022 French Grand Prix. This was his seventh pole of the 2022 season; his first since the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Recording his 16th pole with Ferrari, Leclerc moves ahead of Felipe Massa to third in the list of most poles with the team. Only Michael Schumacher and Niki Lauda are now ahead of Leclerc.
Leclerc took Ferrari’s first pole at Circuit Paul Ricard since Nigel Mansell took pole with the team in 1990. This was also the Scuderia’s first pole at the French Grand Prix since Kimi Raikkonen was on pole at Magny Cours in 2008.
Ferrari equal McLaren as the team with the most poles at Circuit Paul Ricard. This was the team’s third pole position at the circuit.
IN THE TOP 10
With Max Verstappen second and Sergio Perez third, this was the first time that both Red Bull cars have qualified in the top three at the French Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton equalled his best qualifying result of the season with fourth place. He also qualified fourth in Canada. This is the first time that Hamilton has not qualified on the front row at Circuit Paul Ricard.
With Hamilton fourth and George Russell sixth, this was the first time that a Mercedes driver has qualified outside of the top three at the French Grand Prix since the event’s return to the calendar.
Lando Norris qualified fifth, recording his fourth top five qualification of the 2022 season.
With eighth place, Yuki Tsunoda equalled his best qualifying result of the year. He last qualified eighth at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. This was the eighth top eight qualification of his career.
With a back of the grid penalty, Carlos Sainz did not set a competitive time in Q3. Qualifying ninth, he became the first Ferrari driver to qualify outside of the top eight at Circuit Paul Ricard since Stefan Johansson qualified tenth in 1986.
Kevin Magnussen reached Q3 for a second consecutive race. This is the first time he has qualified in the top ten at consecutive races since the start of the season.
This was the first time that a Haas driver reached Q3 at the French Grand Prix since 2018.
Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris all maintained their 100% Q3 appearance rate at the French Grand Prix.
OUT IN Q2
Daniel Ricciardo and Valtteri Bottas both lost their 100% Q3 appearance rate at the French Grand Prix. Both drivers were out in Q2.
Qualifying in 11th place, Daniel Ricciardo became the first McLaren driver to qualify outside of the top ten at the French Grand Prix since 2018, when both cars were out in Q1.
Ricciardo has not reached Q3 at any of the last three races. The last time he failed to reach Q3 at three events in a row was when he was at Toro Rosso, at the 2013 Korean, Japanese and Indian Grands Prix.
For the third time in his three French Grand Prix appearances, Esteban Ocon was eliminated in Q2.
OUT IN Q1
Qualifying in 16th, Pierre Gasly recorded his fourth Q1 exit of the season.
Gasly has missed out on Q3 at all of the last four races. This is his longest run of non-Q3 appearances since the four races between the 2019 Belgian and Russian Grands Prix.
Zhou Guanyu qualified in 18th place, recording his second consecutive Q1 exit. This is the first time he has recorded consecutive Q1 exits in his F1 career.
After having a lap time deleted, Mick Schumacher qualified on the back row for the third time in the last five races.
Lance Stroll was eliminated in Q1 for a seventh consecutive race. He remains yet to make it out of Q1 at the French Grand Prix.
Nicholas Latifi qualified in last place for the third time this year. This was the third time in the last four races at Circuit Paul Ricard that a Williams driver has qualified in last place.
